The North Hempstead Town Board approved a bid to complete its town 9/11 memorial, but not without a debate over whether town board members’ names would be added to the memorial and, if so, whose they would be.
“I don’t think those names are the ones we’re most worried about,” Town Supervisor Jennifer DeSena said.
The town’s 9/11 memorial is located at Manhasset Valley Park and features a steel beam from the World Trade Center. DeSena said the memorial is incomplete, though, and has remained incomplete for years.
“Frankly, anybody affected by 9/11 will tell you it’s shameful that this town has not acted in 24 years on this,” North Hempstead Deputy Supervisor Joseph Scalero said.
The steel beam was acquired by Tom McDonough, the town’s safety coordinator, emergency manager and union president. It was installed as a memorial at the park about five years ago with plantings and benches.
DeSena said the final phase of the project would include a semi-circular granite wall around the steel beam.
The wall would include the names of town residents who died in the 9/11 terrorist attack or after due to related illnesses. DeSena said the plans also include leaving open space for names to be added in the future.
The debate began when Town Council Member Mariann Dalimonte asked that the current plaque remain at the memorial, which includes the names of former North Hempstead Town Supervisor Judi Bosworth and other former town board members. She said she wanted the plaque to remain not because of Bosworth’s name on it but because it also includes the names victims.
Scalero said he was not sure whether the new plans included a plaque for town board members.
Town Council Member Ed Scott, a retired NYPD officer and first responder during the 9/11 terrorist attack, called the conversation “disgusting.”
“My brothers and sisters are the most important people that should be on that thing and nothing else should matter,” Scott said.
Dalimonte said that while she supported the plaque remaining and being added to, she agreed that no town board member’s names needed to be included in the memorial at all.
Town Council Member Robert Troiano said he is “indifferent” to including the names of elected officials on a memorial, which many board members responded to in agreement. He asked that if the project does include the names of officials, it include the names of everybody involved.
Council Member Christine Liu said the conversation would not have transpired as it had if DeSena had not responded to questions posed in emails beforehand.
Dalimonte said she had been seeking clarification on the project details, specifically to ensure that the current memorial plaque remained and that the project would just add to it. She said she did not get a response.
She said neither she nor other board members had seen the plans for the project.
DeSena responded that “sometimes there’s other work to be done.”
“I think the question about Supervisor Bosworth’s name is not as important as voting on this contract and moving forward with construction,” Desena said.
Despite the debate, the board voted unanimously to approve the project bid.
DeSena said she is committed to the project being completed by September, in time for the town’s Sept. 11 memorial service at the park.
