Assemblyman Peter Biondi, a former township mayor and an honorary member of Hillsborough Volunteer Co. No. 3 on Woods Road, was simple and direct about his feelings on the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. Speaking to residents gathered at the firehouse for the dedication of the 9/11 Memorial Garden, Biondi said he felt both sorrow and “just plain damn anger." "Freedom is not free,’’ he said. “There is always a price to pay.” For photos and a story on the ceremony at Hillsborough Fire Co. No. 2, click here. Biondi, who recalled that he “couldn’t believe what I was seeing” on the morning …
The Hillsborough Volunteer Fire Co. No. 2 held a half-hour ceremony Sunday to recognize the 10-year anniversary of 9/11. The ceremony featured several members of the company reading the names of the 343 first-responders who lost their lives during rescue efforts that day. Also featured were the Somerset County Pipe and Drum Corps, a wreath dedication and a piece of steel from one of the twin towers given to the company by the Port Authority of New York. For photos and story on the ceremony at Hillsborough Fire Co. No. 3, click here. According to officer Pat Kelly, who has spearheaded the fire…
Somerset County came together Sunday morning to remember the 39 county residents who died in the 9/11 attacks and to recognize the first-responders who assisted with the rescue efforts 10 years ago. For a full story and photo gallery of the event, click here.
More than 500 people came Sunday morning to the “crossroads of Somerset County” to remember the 39 county residents who were killed in the 9/11 attacks. "I thought it was my responsibility to come here and honor those who died,” former Bedminster Mayor Joseph Metelski said. For a video of the ceremony, click here. As a living memorial to those who died in the attacks, the county freeholders planted a weeping cherry tree on the front lawn of the courthouse, not far from the county’s 9/11 memorial at the corner of Bridge and Main streets in Somerville. The solemn ceremony under gray skies was …
"This is the hour of lead Remembered if outlived, As freezing persons recollect the snow — First chill, then stupor, then the letting go." —Emily Dickinson Colleen Meehan Barkow and her mother JoAnn Meehan spent the weekend before Sept. 11, 2001, happily shopping for towels and linens for the 26-year-old's new home in the Poconos. Colleen and her husband Daniel, married less than a year, were planning to move into the house at the end of October. It meant a long commute into New York, where Colleen worked as a facilities director for Cantor Fitzgerald, on the 103rd …
As the 10-year anniversary of 9/11 arrives this weekend, area officials and first-responders reflect on how they first reacted and responded when they heard about the terrorist attacks on that sunny, but tragic September morning.
The day of Jennifer and Paul McKenna’s honeymoon began like any other, with them departing from Newark Airport at 7 a.m. Sept. 11. The couple married just two days earlier, at Hillsborough Reformed Church. They knew the itinerary—land in Puerto Rico at 11 a.m., then catch the connecting flight to St. Lucia. “We remember walking through the terminal and noticing how nice the twin towers looked on that gorgeous September morning,” Jennifer McKenna said. Though she was 23 and newly married, Jennifer McKenna had been on only two flights in her life and both while accompanied by her parents. Her …
In view of the New York City skyline, two 208-foot long walls designed to resemble the Twin Towers lying on their sides create a space for reflection at Empty Sky, New Jersey's monument to those lost in the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. On Saturday, families will gather to dedicate the New Jersey 9/11 Memorial in Jersey City’s Liberty State Park. After the 11 a.m. ceremony, which will be open strictly to family members of victims, the memorial will officially open to the public. James “Rick” Cahill, of West Caldwell, Chairman of the New Jersey 9/11 Memorial Commission, who lost his …
People needed to communicate on Sept. 11, 2001. Whether you were in Manhattan that day or on the Jersey side of the river, there was an instinct to get in touch with co-workers, friends and families to talk about what was happening, reassure each other, and try to put things in perspective. Hillsborough resident Midge Guerrera expressed her feelings that day through e-mail. When the first plane hit the North Tower, she was on a train on her way to Rutgers in Newark where she taught. She saw the second plane hit the South Tower from a rooftop on campus.“We were close enough to see it from …
The light was unmistakable. Not from the flames, dripping through the ceiling of an abandoned hallway, but from the sun, the actual sun. And there in the stairwell, at nearly 1,000 feet above the ground, a soft breeze carried the air – fresh air from the east – in through a gaping hole in the side of the skyscraper on a cloudless morning in New York City. Reflecting on that day nearly a decade ago, there’s a hint of regret in John Pyndus’ voice as he recalls seeing, with unparalleled clarity, the faces of those he knew who would never make it out alive. Perhaps it’s simply a realization, …
It was time for a change. After terrorists hijacked four passenger planes and slammed two into the World Trade Center buildings, one into the Pentagon, and another into a field in Pennsylvania, the way professionals approach security for mass transportation needed an overhaul. For NJ Transit, which operates 2,027 buses, 771 trains and 45 light rail vehicles over a service area of 5,325 square miles that meant a change in mindset. “In the past we only focused on crime and great service to customers, but now, here at NJ Transit, what we try to drive home to all our officers is that their main …
Editor's Note: As part of Hillsborough Patch's 9/11 coverage, several residents agreed to share personal narratives of their memories from ten years ago. Here, Dianne Lyons, an Auten Road School teacher, shares her memories from that day. In 2001, I was teaching fifth grade at Auten Road, but at that time we were an elementary school. It was only a few days into the school year. I can remember being in the middle of joking with the class about something when the librarian walked in. She handed me a typed message on a piece of paper, but before I would read it, I tried to get her in on the …
Before Sept. 11, 2001, not many Americans were familiar with the term “homeland security.” Yet now, a decade later, homeland security is part of Americans’ everyday routine. Americans face extra security at airports and other public places. The integrity of forms of identification, such as driver's licenses, have become the core of homeland security. And there are more subtle reminders of the increased awareness about the possibility of terrorism, such as concrete barriers placed in strategic places at public places. Law enforcement agencies, at the federal, state and municipal levels, are at…
Editor's note: Many New Jersey residents saw firsthand the attacks on the World Trade Center on Sept. 11. Now, 10 years later, we've asked some of them how the event changed their lives. We'll be sharing their stories all this week.Hoboken resident Howard Turoff remembers thinking it was a clear and beautiful day as he walked to the local PATH station on his way to work on Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2001. He had no idea he was about to step onto the last train into lower Manhattan, to the biggest terrorist attack ever in the United States. The cars of the train were full. People were standing …
The attacks of 9/11 brought a new level of awareness to local emergency services in the decade since the Twin Towers fell. Mark Brownlie, then manager of the Township’s Office of Emergency Management, remembers working from home that morning when he received a call from his brothers—a police officer in East Brunswick. The call informed him about the attacks in New York City. Minutes later, a call from Robert Gazaway, Hillsborough’s Police Chief then. Within the hour, he, the township department heads, the police, rescue squads, fire companies and school officials met to discuss how they would…
Everyone reacted differently to the attacks of Sept. 11, and the ensuing war and changes to our country. In this special You Said It, we asked five county residents to discuss how that day changed their lives, and how much they believe the world has changed since that day. Come back every day through Sunday to see what each resident had to say.
Like many residents, Debbie and Rich Norz remember exactly where they were on the day the Twin Towers fell. “I was sitting in my office at my job,” Debbie Norz recalls. “I was pregnant and I heard the news over the radio. I called Rich and he had just finished milking (the cows). I remember him being on the phone and saying, ‘another plane just hit the tower.’” The moment left an indelible mark on the country—and one the Norz family decided to commemorate through the farm’s annual corn maze. “Every year, we sit down to figure out what we are going to do for this year’s maze,” Debbie Norz …
Editor's note: Many New Jersey residents saw firsthand the attacks on the World Trade Center on Sept. 11. Now, 10 years later, we've asked some of them how the event changed their lives. We'll be sharing their stories all this week.Steve Napolitano, who was the General Manager of the George Washington Bridge and Bus Station on Sept. 11, 2001, remembers standing on the sidewalk the day after the terror attacks, staring at the American flag workers had just unfurled on the bridge "while car horns beeped as they drove beneath it." “It was really important that we do that; that we hang that flag…
Charles B. McKenna, director of the New Jersey State Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness, is scheduled to represent Gov. Chris Christie at Somerset County’s 9/11 memorial ceremony. He will bring a proclamation from the governor. The ceremony will begin Sunday at 8:46 a.m., next to the county’s 9/11 memorial at the corner of Main and Bridge streets in Somerville. The Bernie Field parking deck off East High Street will be open for free parking for the ceremony. Members of the Somerset County Board of Freeholders, led by Freeholder Director Robert Zaborowski, will plant a tree in …
In the almost 20 years since David Sandler started Sandler Communication Services, he has helped many people share their stories; perhaps no story impacted him as much, however, as that of Rick and Susan Rescorla. Sandler helped Susan tell the couple’s story in Touched by a Hero: A 9/11 Widow’s Journal of Love & Legacy. Rick Rescorla, a retired army colonel and Morgan Stanley’s second vice president for corporate security, safely evacuated nearly 2,700 people from the World Trade Center during the 9/11 terrorist attacks. He then went back to help others when the tower collapsed; his body was …
