By:Andrew Coen
The ceremony, slated for Sunday, Sept. 12, at 2 p.m., will take place one year after the groundbreaking of the public memorial at the park. The Cedarhurst project includes a monolith etched with a scene of the World Trade Center and the names of the District 15 residents who died in the terrorist attacks.
The local victims included Neil. D Levin, executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, who was formerly from Atlantic Beach; Thomas E. Jurgens, a Meadowmere Park volunteer firefighter and senior court officer for the New York State Supreme Court; Kevin O'Rourke, a former Lawrence-Cedarhurst firefighter and a New York City firefighter, who lived in Hewlett; Bettina Browne Radburn of Atlantic Beach, vice president of mergers and acquisitions at the AON Corporation; Joseph Rivelli Jr., a volunteer for the Inwood Fire Department and a city firefighter; and Ira Zaslow, a North Woodmere resident who was assistant vice president of Lehman Brothers.
In addition to paying homage to those who perished on 9/11, the ceremony will honor those who lost their lives defending the country. "This is more than a memorial to those lost in past world wars, military conflicts and the tragedy of our World Trade Center," said Cedarhurst Mayor Andrew Parise. "It encompasses all those whom we honor and mourn, living or deceased."
The project, which has been in the works for nearly three years, cost more than $100,000, with funding raised privately, according to Cedarhurst Village Clerk Sal Evola.
"Mayor Parise did about 99 percent of the work," said village Trustee Ari Brown, who assisted, along with the other trustees, in the fund-raising effort. "It was a group effort, and everyone did their part."
The Cedarhurst Memorial Plaza, which begins at Cedarhurst Park's grand main archway, at the intersection of Cedarhurst and Summit avenues across from Village Hall, features a brick pathway with four slate inserts commemorating the time of each attack on Sept. 11, 2001.
Some of the bricks in the pathway are etched with the names of those who have served the Village of Cedarhurst.
The memorial also features the original bronze memorial plaques donated in 1973 by American Legion Post #339 in Cedarhurst, an eternal fountain and a beam recovered from the World Trade Center.
"People from our village and beyond use this as a sanctuary," said Parise. "It is an inspiring setting that will be cherished by many for years to come.
This has been a remarkable team effort by my Board of Trustees, Department of Public Works and John Novello Drafting Services."
Additional bricks, benches and lights can be purchased for the memorial to commemorate a loved one or to honor a person, business or association.
Five Towners killed in the terrorist attacks have been honored often during the past three years. Howard Selwyn of North Woodmere, who coached the Hewlett/Lawrence Blue Blast under-13 soccer team, will be included in a future planned 9/11 memorial on the corner of Peninsula and Gibson boulevards in Valley Stream.
9/11 commemorative stickers
As a way of remembering the victims of 9/11, Minuteman Press, 1315 Broadway in Hewlett, has ordered 1,000 commemorative stickers to hand out to community residents.
The 3-by-5 static-cling stickers feature a full-colored American flag that says "September 11, 2001, we will remember."
Minuteman Press has handed out some 6,000 of the stickers since the attacks.
