Preparing to Remember to Never Forget.

HAMILTON— The township received a steel beam from the World Trade Center today as a tangible reminder of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
A flatbed truck made the trip to an airport hangar at John F. Kennedy International Airport to pick up the 9-foot, 674-pound beam, said Brian Moss, chairman of the Hamilton Township Fire Chiefs Association’s committee, which applied for the steel.
The beam will be permanently erected in the township’s 9/11 memorial in Veterans Park, he said.
The township lost four residents on Sept. 11, 2001, and two township firefighters as members of the Urban, Search and Rescue team were sent to the city on a recovery mission, Moss said.
“It struck pretty close to home,” he said of the tragedy.
The piece’s arrival today at around 11 a.m. was met with firetrucks, an honor guard and a bagpipe band lining Tampa Avenue, Moss said.
After the Department of Public Works weatherizes the steel beam, it will be unveiled and formally dedicated at a ceremony on Sept. 10, Mayor John Bencivengo said.
“This is an ongoing remembrance of that day,” he said.
The Port Authority has been giving pieces of steel from Ground Zero to local governments and community groups who are preparing 9/11 memorials.
Moss said the fire chiefs association received a smaller piece of steel from Ground Zero last September from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. The smaller piece is often brought to schools, libraries and police and fire stations for display, Moss said.
A 10-foot piece of I-beam steel from the World Trade Center site is being fashioned into a memorial in Mercer County Park. Dedication of that memorial is scheduled for Sept. 11.
By Cristina Rojas/The Times of Trenton