Community meeting discusses Trayvon Martin memorial

Roughly 100 people attended a town hall meeting to discuss a potential permanent memorial for Trayvon Martin.

Opinions were divided, but many expressed the need for a memorial for Martin, the teen killed by neighborhood watchman George Zimmerman.

For weeks, a memorial sat outside the Retreat at Twin Lakes, marking the place where Trayvon Martin died. But some who lived there wanted it moved, saying it was an eyesore and cast their neighborhood in a bad light.

"They were taken to be preserved at the Sanford Museum. That angered some people," said City Manager, Norton Bonaparte.

And it still does.

"We want the memorial back up," said NAACP represenative Turner Clayton. "It is not on display in the museum, it's packed away in a box."

The question over how to memorialize one teen grew into what to do about the 25 other recent violent deaths in Sanford. Some in the crowd wondered why other memorials around town were not removed and sat ignored. But Martin's was not just any death, it captured national attention...

"The city has not as of today answered any questions to my satisfication as to why this particular memorial was removed in the first place," said Clayton.

Although the meeting's purpose was to gather ideas, no decisions were made.

The city manager said the city will look at roadside memorial laws in other cities for guidance about how to proceed before making a recommendation to city council.