Several towns in Middlesex County sponsoring events
BY MARLENE CANTY Staff Writer
BY MARLENE CANTY
Staff Writer
As the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks approaches, a host of services ranging from candlelight and prayer vigils to the dedication of some newly erected monuments are planned locally.
Sayreville, which has observed the remembrance with candlelight ceremonies for the past four years, will dedicate a 9/11 memorial this year, according to Police Detective Kenneth Kelly, who chairs Sayreville’s 9/11 Memorial Committee.
The memorial dedication is scheduled for Saturday at Burke’s Park, on Washington Road, and will begin at 9:30 a.m. with a wreath-laying, followed by a prayer service, the playing of “Taps” and some reflective words by guests including Sayreville Mayor Kennedy O’Brien.
The memorial consists of two granite towers, a large piece of black granite lettered in gold in memory of the borough’s four residents who perished in the twin towers. The large memorial site, spread out with pavers, also has three meditation benches.
“This is our way of honoring their memory,” Kelly said of the four residents and all others lost on 9/11.
Old Bridge’s 9/11 commemorations, to be held Monday, are planned as sedate and dignified, unencumbered by complicated ritual, according to W. Thomas
Badco*ck, the township’s director of parks, recreation and social services. The town’s 9/11 monument was dedicated in 2003 and includes two black marble granite towers and 12 black granite cubes, one for each of the Old Bridge residents who perished at ground zero.
This year, at least two of the widows who lost their husbands on 9/11 will be present for the ceremonies, which will include an official service and wreath-laying at 9 a.m. at the monument, located in the municipal complex at 1 Old Bridge Plaza. There is also an evening nondenominational prayer service and candlelight vigil at the Laurence Harbor beachfront at 7 p.m. in a simple service that is open to the public.
According to Badco*ck, one of the reasons for the deliberately low-key remembrance is that most of the 12 families will be involved in a special service at the memorial site in New York City this year.
Spotswood, like Sayreville, will augment its annual observance of the tragedy with the dedication of its newly built 9/11 memorial on Summerhill Road. The ceremony will begin at 7 p.m. Monday and will feature a wreath-laying by Eileen Cella, a Spotswood resident and the sister of a firefighter who perished on 9/11, and Scott Manga, a police officer who took part in the rescue and recovery efforts.
Spotswood’s memorial consists of two stone pillars representing the towers and a steel beam that was secured from the remains of the Word Trade Center.
Mayor Barry Zagnit and other dignitaries will speak during the event.
Milltown’s remembrance, a candlelight ceremony, will begin at 7 p.m. Monday at Borough Park, Violet Terrace, and the public is welcome. Participants are asked to bring a candle and a lawn chair. The town is still in the planning stages of creating a monument, but in 2002 dedicated a tree in memory of those Americans who died in the twin towers.
During the town’s services this year, one large candle will be passed around to participants to light their candles by.
Monroe Township’s memorial service promises to be a visually moving event. The candlelight memorial service will take place at the Memorial Tree Park at Prospect Plains and Half Acre roads on Monday.
Clergy and lay people of all faiths will take part in the 6:30 p.m. service that will include “prayer, speech and song,” in memory of lives lost, according to Shannon Cenci, one of the event organizers.
The town constructed a memorial that was dedicated in 2002 and bears the names of township residents who lost loved ones when the towers fell.
In addition, the township is presenting an American flag memorial that will display 2,977 flags in remembrance of the individuals who perished on that day. The flag memorial will be open to the public today through Tuesday.
In South River, Mayor Robert Szegeti, members of the Borough Council and the Dincuff family will hold a memorial ceremony Sept. 10 at 6 p.m. at the 9/11 Memorial in Daileys Pond Park.
Christopher Dincuff, 31, was known throughout the community for his strong bond with South River. He worked as a commodities trader for Carr Futures, a global brokerage firm whose offices were located on the 92nd floor in the North Tower of the World Trade Center.
Carr Futures, which is based in Chicago, housed approximately 150 employees in the Manhattan office on Sept. 11.
Several other organizations are also marking the five-year anniversary in a variety of ways.
The Old Bridge Public Library, for example, will sponsor a day of remembrance, discussion and silence from 9:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday. The library is putting together a selection of related materials from the library’s collection
“For those of us who grew up in Laurence Harbor, where the New York City skyline was so visible every day, that missing skyline makes the events of 9/11 indelible in our collective memory,” said Old Bridge Mayor Jim Phillips.
“I was at my desk at work that day,” said Tracy Weber, a secretary in the ID Bureau of the Sayreville Police Department. Weber’s father was an iron worker among the crew that helped build the towers in the 1960s.
“It took them almost a decade altogether to get them up,” Weber said, “Then to see them come down within minutes … seconds … .
“The one thing that you would never think of happening, happened,” she said. “And whether or not you lost someone personally that day, I think it left a hole in everybody’s heart.”
