Potential monument will contain artifacts from crash sites
“We shall never forget,” words inked by poet Alan W. Jankowski about the tragedy that was Sept. 11, 2001, remain true, and Harrison Township intends to keep it that way.
At the Mach 5 Harrison Township Committee meeting, a motion was approved authorizing the execution of a letter of intent to purchase a portion of 18 S. Main St. — the corner of Mullica Hill Baptist Church property — to erect a 9/11 memorial. This is not a binding contract with the church; however, the township committee is optimistic the deal will go through.
Multiple members of the Mullica Hill community and the Harrison Township governing body have been in support of a memorial for several years. While the price for the land and construction of the memorial is not finalized, Mark Gravinese, Harrison Township Administrator says “it is an official project” with a goal of completion before September. If the land is purchased, the township would own a portion of the church property and the parking lot.
Multiple sites in the township were of interest for the project, including the William Wilt Sport Complex, Harmony Fire House and others. However, the township feels the church’s property offers accessibility to the general public, ample space for large gatherings, parking availability and ideal access to the downtown historic district.
Gravinese says the significance of this memorial is “the remembrance of a horrific event that took place in our lifetime and honoring all of those first responders, the people themselves and everyone impacted since that event. It is special for us to honor and keep that memory alive for the next generation.”
The projected design presents a concrete ring with a diameter of 27 feet with two granite towers atop a pachysandra ground cover in the center of a pentagon shape. Included in the memorial will be artifacts from all three sites: New York, Washington, D.C., and Shanksville, Pa., such as steel and rock.
There are also plans for a black marble wall embolden with “We Shall Never Forget” etched in white lettering behind the memorial.
One potential element, according to Dennis Clowney, Commander at the American Legion Post 452, who offered up the idea of a memorial nearly five years ago, is for the artifacts to face in the general direction of the crash sites.
“Dennis did all the back work to try to secure the artifacts and it took several years,” Gravinese said.
After Clowney presented the idea for the memorial and began discovering how to obtain the artifacts, the Harrison Township World Trade Center Artifact Retrieval Team was formed and included Grainese, Clowney, Mayor Lou Manzo, Ron Walk and Dennis Chambers. The team remained on several waiting lists for multiple years before being permitted to transport the artifacts to Mullica Hill.
On Aug. 15, 2015, the team traveled to New York and brought back steel from one of the World Trade Center towers, six feet long and weighing approximately 2,000 pounds.
“I’m pleased it is finally coming along,” Clowney said.
Details will be made available as the project continues.
