Thursday, October 1, 2026
Nearly 25 years after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, Nassau County elected officials, police officers and firefighters recently broke ground on an upgraded 9/11 memorial in Eisenhower Park in East Meadow.
The memorial, which will feature new stonework, will pay tribute to volunteer fire service members who died in the attacks, as well as those who have died since then from illnesses related to rescue and recovery efforts at Ground Zero.
Michael Uttaro, Nassau County’s chief fire marshal, said the groundbreaking represented “an unwavering commitment to ensure that the remembrance of the heroes that were lost on that fateful day… are never forgotten.
“It’s more than just words,” Uttaro added at the July 9 event. “It is a promise, and it is a promise that needs to be kept today and for generations to come.”
Inside the park, an existing memorial along Park Boulevard, near Field 6/6A, features the names of 19 victims who died on Sept. 11 and 30 additional names of those who have succumbed to illness. All names featured are from Nassau County fire services. But the memorial is aging and includes a typo — the word “officer” is misspelled.
Officials said $350,000 will go toward the revamped memorial, located in the same part of Eisenhower Park. The Nassau County Legislature unanimously approved $150,000 in taxpayer money to partly fund the project, with the remaining $200,000 coming from donations.
In quoting President George W. Bush’s 2001 address to the nation, Uttaro said, “We will not waver; we will not tire; we will not falter; and we will not fail.”
“When the decision had to come to replace the original aging county fire service September 11th memorial behind you here, those same words were immortalized by the bold actions and focused determination of many individuals in the county's fire service in getting this project underway,” he added. “So, today, we say thanks to the work and relentless dedication of the Nassau County Firefighters Memorial Endowment Association, the Nassau County Fire Commission, and the county executive, but this groundbreaking symbolizes what we are here to say now and forever: We will never forget.”
County Executive Bruce Blakeman, whose nephew, Thomas Jurgens, died while rendering first aid to a woman suffering from severe burns in the lobby of 2 World Trade Center, said: “It’s fitting on the 25th anniversary of that horrible day that we rededicate ourselves to remembering the memory of all those who gave their lives on that dreadful day.”
The body of Jurgens, a Meadowmere Park firefighter and a military veteran, was never recovered, just his sidearm and shield.
Blakeman added that all of Nassau County’s firefighters who perished were “responsible for saving thousands of lives.”
“We talk every day about the 3,000 people who were murdered on that day,” Blakeman added, “but we don't talk enough about the number of people that were saved that day, saved by people that were on that list. Now, we will have a brand-new memorial that people will be able to come by and realize the sacrifice they made for each and every one of us.”
The new memorial will feature several large gray stones inscribed with commemorative text. The center stone will list the names of Nassau County firefighters who died, beneath a fire department shield.
The memorial will read: “Dedicated to those members of the volunteer fire service in Nassau County who answered the call on September 11, 2001 and placed themselves in harm’s way and made the ultimate sacrifice to help a stranger.”
Ralph Esposito, chairman of the Nassau County Firefighters Memorial Endowment Association and director of the Nassau County Veterans Service Agency, was visibly emotional during the ceremony, recounting his time at Ground Zero and speaking of the firefighters who died and continue to battle illnesses.
“The memorial will be for more than stone and steel,” Esposito said. “It will be a permanent promise that the sacrifices of the Nassau County volunteer firefighters will never be forgotten. It will stand as a lasting tribute to those who made the ultimate sacrifice on September 11.”
Esposito extended thanks to the donors that helped make the new memorial a reality, including the Peter & Jeri Dejana Foundation, who donated $100,000. Following his remarks, officials ceremonially broke ground for the project.
The new memorial is expected to be completed by September, just ahead of the 25th anniversary of the attacks.
Eisenhower Park is home to another 9/11 memorial — near the lake off Merrick Avenue — that includes a replica of the Twin Towers. Opened in 2007, that memorial honors the nearly 3,000 people killed in the terrorist attacks in Manhattan, at the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, and aboard Flight 93, which crashed in a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
