Ramapo will host mobile 9/11 Memorial

Ramapo will host mobile 9/11 memorial
By SULAIMAN BEGsbeg@lohud.com

THE JOURNAL NEWS

If you go What: Port Authority 9/11 Traveling MemorialWhere: Ramapo Town Hall, 237 Route 59, AirmontWhen: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and noon to 5 p.m. Sunday.Information: call 845-357-5100, Ext. 201 or visit www.wtctm.com

(Original publication: May 16, 2006)
AIRMONT — When Chester "Chet" Weekes retired as a lieutenant with the Port Authority Police Department in 2000, he planned to tour the country with his wife in a motor home the couple had recently purchased.

But a year later, the Jackson, N.J., man's priorities changed, as they did for most Americans.
The terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, that killed more than 3,000 people, including 37 Port Authority police officers and 38 employees, prompted Weekes and another retired Port Authority lieutenant, Gene Smith, to transform the Monaco Motorhome into a memorial on wheels.

Since March 2002, the two have hitched a 14-foot long trailer to the 38-foot motor home and traveled the country to showcase and honor the memory of those who died and display artifacts recovered from Ground Zero. The memorial will make its first stop in Rockland this weekend at Ramapo Town Hall.

"We lost 22 people in the town," said Town Supervisor Christopher St. Lawrence, whose office contacted Weekes a year ago. "As we get further away from that tragedy in September, we don't want to lose sight of the people who lost their lives and the emergency service workers who exchanged their lives so that so many people could be alive today."

Weekes, 60, said he and Smith had been volunteering at Ground Zero during the recovery effort and were given permission to use some of the collected artifacts as part of their memorial. They include crushed police car doors, airplane fragments and other debris.

Weekes said some of the most haunting pieces are the smaller ones, the ones that make a personal connection with people.

"We have things like keyboards and staple guns," he said yesterday. "Things people were using on 9/11. They really bring the picture home."

Along with an extensive pictorial display, a video documentary and a history of the Port Authority, the artifacts are placed in the trailer and set up wherever the motor home stops. The mobile home displays the names of the officers and the employees who worked for the Port Authority; Sirius, a Port Authority police dog; and the 23 New York City police officers who died that day.

"We were just in Louisiana, and it was like it just happened yesterday," Weekes said. "It brings it home a bit. I always tell people, 'Next time it could happen in L.A. This was not an attack on New York, it was an attack on America.' "

Boro 9/11 Memorial to be Up by September

Sayreville council awards $255K contract to local contractor BY MICHAEL ACKER Staff Writer
SAYREVILLE

- The borough is on course to have its quarter-million-dollar memorial to the victims of 9/11 built in time for the five-year anniversary of the terrorist attacks.

On Monday, the borough council authorized a $255,650 contract for Peter Ferro Construction Co. Inc., of South River, to build the memorial.

According to Borough Engineer Jay Cornell, the site plan for the memorial has remained unchanged, though the proposed site has been changed from the Sayreville Middle School to Burke's Park. Only the layout of the walkway has been changed in order to fit the existing topography of the site.

"The walkway layout is different, because the memorial is now in the middle of a park," Cornell said.

The park, on Washington Road, was chosen as the site after Councilman Rory Zach voiced concerns about security at the middle school if a public memorial was to be built there. The council's February decision to change sites resulted in the resignation of Ken Kelly as chairman of the 9/11 Committee, which spent more than two years planning for the memorial and chose the middle school as its site. Kelly, whose committee received Board of Education approval for the middle school site, expressed disappointment with the Borough Council for not consulting him or his committee in its relocation decision.

Zach felt Burke's Park was a more high-profile location than the middle school.

Borough Business Administrator Jeff Bertrand said a minimal number of trees will have to be cleared in Burke's Park to make way for the memorial, which will be built east of the gazebo, near Washington Road.

The memorial will be at the center of a circular pathway that will be 135 linear feet in size. It will include two replica towers made of granite that will each be 7 feet tall. Flagpoles, lighting and benches are also included. The walkway will have brick pavers until it meets with the asphalt path already at the park, Cornell said.

Cornell said the borough is now waiting for the contractor to submit a performance bond, insurance certificate and the signed contract. He anticipates the project to start by early June.
"The governing body is looking to have this done by 9/11," Cornell said.

Resident Barbara Kilcommons told the council Monday that she hopes the memorial is completed before Sept. 11. She asked if $255,650 was the final figure or if there were other fees not included in the figure. Cornell said that amount is the final fee paid to the contractor for all construction-related costs. This includes the clearing of trees and electric costs, he said.

Cornell noted that the amount is less than a previous bid submitted for the project.

Kilcommons said she is a neighbor of Louise and Robert Hughes, who lost their son, Bobby, on 9/11 at the age of 23.

"Bobby Hughes was my paper boy," Kilcommons said. "Memorials are already in other communities. Ours is long overdue."

County Dedicates 9/11 Memorial

By Tara Slate Donaldson
05/12/2006

It was a warm, clear evening Tuesday when hundreds of county residents gathered in silence to dedicate a new memorial.In fact, several dignitaries noted that the weather was very similar on an autumn evening four-and-a-half years ago as thick smoke billowed from New York City, Arlington and a field in Pennsylvania.

County victimsSFC John J. Chada, USA retiredSK3 Jamie L. Fallon, USN, Amelia F. Fields, LTC, Robert J. Hymel, USAF retired SGM Lacey B. Ivory, USA, Judith L. Jones, David W. Laychak, James T. Lynch Jr., Gene E. Maloy, Robert J. Maxwell, Molly L. McKenzie, Craig J. Miller, Diana B. Padro, Rhonda s. Rasmussen, Edward V. Rowenhorst, Judy Rowlett, Donald D. Simmons, Jeff L. Simpson. Cheryle D. Sincock, ITC Gregg H. Smallwood, USNSGM Larry L. Strickland, USA, Sandra L. White, Gene E. Maloy, Craig J. Miller and Jeff L. Simpson died at the World Trade Center in New York City. The other 19 victims died at the Pentagon. Almost 3,000 people, including 22 from Prince William, died on Sept. 11, 2001.

On Tuesday, residents gathered to dedicate a memorial in their honor. As Pershing's Own United States Army Band played, a color guard slowly marched up a small hill to the memorial. There, they raised the flags on a flagpole that had been specially chosen for the memorial.Jim Lynch, a Navy civilian, was killed at the Pentagon on Sept. 11. His widow, Brenda Lynch, told the crowd on Tuesday that the flagpole had come from her home.“He was a very patriotic person and flew the American flag on this flagpole in our yard every day,” she said. “This is where the flagpole needs to be.”Laurie Laychak also spoke of her husband. She and Dave Laychak had been living in Prince William for only a year before he was killed at the Pentagon, leaving behind a 7-year-old daughter and 9-year-old son.“We, the families of those lost, find comfort in this public remembrance of those we loved,” she said.Sen. George Allen (R) joined Lynch, Laychak and the relatives of other victims at the ceremony on Tuesday, telling them that their families have gotten bigger since the terrorist attacks.“This community will never abandon you and neither will this grand compassionate nation,” he said. “You've been adopted.”

At the end of the ceremony, Board of County Supervisors Chairman Sean Connaughton read an e-mail he had received the day before from a World Trade Center survivor.Bridget Carriero was on the 68th floor when the plane hit 10 floors above her. She wrote that she lost six friends and couldn't bring herself to attend the ceremony, but that she would visit the memorial afterwards.“I feel so lost out here in Virginia, now I have somewhere to go to cry and pray since I cannot go to Ground Zero,” she wrote.Prince William is one of the first communities in the country to complete its Sept. 11 memorial.

The monument takes the form of a pentagon-shaped pool with two tower-like fountains in the middle. The pool is surrounded by a floor made from Pennsylvania flagstone and the names of each of the county's 22 victims are inscribed on the west wall of the pool.Also included in the monument is a large concrete brick, which was obtained from the wreckage at the Pentagon by Maj. Gen. Robert Diamond, an aide to the Secretary of the Army.The memorial stands outside the McCoart Building, at the County Complex on the Prince William Parkway.

Phoenix breaks ground on 9/11 memorial

Design uses light to highlight phrases, pieces from the tragedy
John Faherty and Carrie Watters The Arizona Republic May. 9, 2006 12:00 AM
It's easy to forget how hard it is to remember. That's why ground was broken Monday for Arizona's Sept. 11 Memorial at the state Capitol.Steve Speisman will never forget that day. Neither will his parents, Jack and Joyce.

Donna Bird will carry 9/11 with her for the rest of her life. So, too, will Philip Manning. Those people all lost a son or brother or husband when the planes started crashing. But they, like us, will not be here forever. Eventually, our memories will fade, and then we will be gone. For future generations, it will be a lesson in history classes. Clearly, people will know about the losses of the day. They will know the numbers. They will know about the wars. But will they remember the moment? The shock and fear? The coming together as a nation?Those are the things that will be honored by the memorial at Wesley Bolin Memorial Plaza. The goal is to have it completed by this Sept. 11. The state's 9/11 Memorial Commission chose a design that uses sunlight to illuminate phrases about the 2001 terrorist attacks and how they affected people in Arizona. The memorial will be circular, with a solid concrete base. Above it is a steel visor with words cut into the metal. As the sun shines down, light will stream through, projecting the words onto the concrete below. Sections of phrases will come into focus at different times of the day and year depending on the sun's angle. And only on Sept. 11 each year will it fully illuminate an 18-inch piece of a steel beam from the 44th floor of Tower One of the World Trade Center. The memorial is expected to cost about $450,000. All the money was privately raised and no public funds will be used to build or maintain the monument. A primary motivation in the design of the memorial is educational.

There will be timelines to help people understand the events of the day, but there will also be phrases to help people in the years to come to understand the emotion of the time. "There will be no memorial in the country quite like this one," said Gov. Janet Napolitano, who called the design unique, bold and dynamic.Bird, whose husband, Gary, died in Tower One, was among those at the groundbreaking.The Tempe resident could not help but compare the memorial to the recent conviction of Zacarias Moussaoui, the only man charged in the tragedy of Sept. 11. He will be in the darkness of a prison without human companionship, Bird said. She called the memorial a celebration of warmth and light."We have to be a people who believe that evil always finds its way to darkness, but goodness finds its way to light."

9/11 Memorial Ready

By KEITH WALKER

It's been a long time coming, but the 9/11 Liberty Memorial is finally a reality.
The memorial honoring 22 Prince William County residents who died on Sept. 11, 2001, at the Pentagon and the World Trade Center will be dedicated at 7 p.m. Tuesday in front of the McCoart Administration Center at One County Complex Court off Prince William Parkway.
A pool of water in the shape of a pentagon with two fountains, representing the World Trade Center towers, and a walkway made of Pennsylvania flagstone representing Flight 93 is the centerpiece of the memorial that is ringed with newly planted trees.

A block of stone from the Pentagon fire is included in the design.

The names of those who perished are inscribed in stone on the side of the pool facing the front of the memorial.

"It's a true tribute to those Prince William residents who died on 9/11," said Prince William County Chairman Sean T. Connaughton, R-at large.

Laurie Laychak and Brenda Lynch, the wives of David Laychak and James Lynch who died in the attack on the Pentagon, formed the 9/11 Memorial Committee in 2003 to raise money for the memorial they estimated would cost about $300,000.

When they reached $290,000 in donations a couple of years later, the committee discovered that the cost to build the memorial had risen by about $175,000.

On Sept. 21, 2005, the committee asked the county for a loan to make up the difference.
The Prince William County Board of County Supervisors initially voted to lend the money to the committee, but reconsidered and reversed its decision on Oct. 5, 2005.

The story wasn't over.

A local business and one of its sub-contractors came through to get the memorial built, Connaughton said.

"When a majority of the board rescinded the county's offer to provide a bridge loan, we had a local company come forward and put up money, and also we had a contractor come forward and build it at cost," Connaughton said.

In all, the the two companies donated more than $200,000 in cash, material and labor to build the memorial, said county spokeswoman Liz Bahrns.

Connaughton said no tax money was used to build the memorial.

Connaughton will announce the donors' names at Tuesday's ceremony.

"The memorial could not have been built without the efforts of many citizens, volunteers and the generous benefactors who contributed their time, talent and resources," Connaughton said in a recent press release.

"We intend to thank these individuals and businesses at the ceremony as well," he said.
More than 150 people have responded, saying they plan to attend the ceremony, Bahrns said.