1 October committee seeks proposals for permanent memorial

The 1 October Memorial Committee voted unanimously Wednesday to approve the selection process for a permanent remembrance of the Route 91 shooting.

The 7-person committee expects to begin accepting submissions from the public for the final memorial on July 1.

The memorial will honor the 60 victims and hundreds of survivors who were part of the deadliest mass shooting in recent America history, which unfolded across the street from Mandalay Bay on Oct. 1, 2017, the final night of the Route 91 Harvest music festival.

Mynda Smith, a member of the committee who lost her sister in the shooting, said she wanted to ensure those submitting proposals could use it as a healing journey. She asked that each potential creator of the future memorial be required to view the public database of other submissions when it becomes available.

“My biggest concern with this was that we give the people who are submitting ideas a healing journey, that we make sure that their voices are heard and that they have a purpose,” Smith said. “I think we need to keep in mind that their purpose is important and that we make sure it doesn’t stop at their submittal of their idea.”

The process will begin with a call for evaluators, including families, survivors, first responders and experts willing to sit on a confidential 7-person jury to chose the top five projects. On July 1, the committee will also open a call for qualifications from teams interested in creating the memorial. The confidential jury would would narrow down those choices.

The final call on July 1 will be for creative expressions, including a letter of intent to participate, or any suggestions for a design of the memorial. Anyone can submit an idea under the creative expressions category and after Clark County staff reviews the submissions, they will all be posted on a public database. The committee has not yet determined how those submissions will be accepted.

The committee is made up of survivors, local artists and architects, a Las Vegas police chief and a project manager for the city of Las Vegas.

After an hour of discussion and a final vote on Wednesday, chair president and director of the Vegas Strong Resiliency Center, Tennille Pereira, expressed gratitude, especially for a sub-committee that drafted the plan over several months.

“That was a very heavy lift so I just want to thank the sub-committee, entire committee and staff for their diligent, hard work on this,” she said. “I think we found the right balance so thank you, thank you, thank you.”

The board plans to discuss its next steps with the county and begin drafting documents to open the submission process by July.

Contact Sabrina Schnur at sschnur@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0278. Follow @sabrina_schnur on Twitter.