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The 60-foot wide, 22-foot tall architectural sculpture will be the focal point of Unity Park to be located across from the Jackson Civic Center on the corner of Church and East Chester streets.

"We want people to identify this with Jackson," Nadasky says. "We want it to become a focal point and something that will come to mind when you think about Jackson."

The sculpture, constructed mostly of concrete with some caststone and a steel under structure, will include a waterfall and is scheduled to be completed by late March or early April of 2000, Nadasky says. The memorial will feature seven columns - six columns memorializing each of the storm victims, one representing "the amount of help offered by the people and the spirit of community" after the tornadoes struck the Jackson-Madison County area.

The cost of the monument will reach $80,000 to $100,000, Nadasky says. A benefit concert, held June 27, by Jackson native Laurice Lanier raised $40,000 for the project. Lanier is a student at the Julliard School of Music in New York.

Nadasky projects the memorial will require approximately eight months of labor, which will be provided from two groups. Eight Union students have enrolled in a three-hour public sculpture class to be taught in the fall semester by both Nadasky and Benson. Also working at the site will be up to 15 inmates of the Madison County jail as part of the Concrete Products School for Inmates program.

"The name [Unity Park] and location [downtown] signifies how the city feels about this project and is a testimony to the response of the community of its unity when the tornadoes hit," Jackson Mayor Charles Farmer says. "Without Lee and Chris, the project would not have begun and would not be successful."