Eleven years to the day after Hoboken residents withstood the horror of the 9/11 terrorist attacks across the Hudson River, two events related to that tragedy will be held in town. The city is also working on a permanent memorial on the waterfront. Hoboken lost 57 community members of Sept. 11, 2001, more than any other zip code in the state.

A memorial event will take place at 10:30 a.m. at Our Lady of Grace Church. The mass, at 400 Willow Ave., will be attended by Hoboken police, firefighters, EMTs, the Port Authority police, and federal, state, county and local officials. It is open to the public.

The second public memorial that day will be held at Pier A Park at 6:30 p.m.

In addition, this Tuesday, Sept. 11 is also the date when bids for city’s long-delayed memorial to the victims of the terrorist attack are due.

Memorial long in coming

In May 2011, a temporary 9/11 memorial at Pier A Park was destroyed by natural elements. Hoboken had been planning for a permanent 9/11 memorial for quite some time but the effort was bedeviled by cost issues.

The city finalized a conceptual design for a 9/11 Memorial in September 2011 with a $4 million price tag. That design had a walkway from Pier A to a newly constructed pier specifically for the memorial, constructed of tempered glass with the names of the 57 residents.

At the time, the city was awarded a grant from the state Department of Community Affairs. However, the cost of the walkway and new pier exceeded the grant funds.
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“I’m very excited to move these projects forward.” – Mayor Dawn Zimmer.
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Due to the high cost, the 9/11 Memorial Committee went back to the drawing board and chose a modified plan on Pier A, nestling the memorial within the trees. The city and Sept. 11 Memorial Committee worked together to maintain the conceptual design that incorporates “the meaningful features of the original design.”

The memorial will face the World Trade Center site and be disabled-accessible. Lights will be used to accentuate the glass panels, reminiscent of the Twin Towers, which will be mounted on two symmetrical, semicircular platforms that are 1.5 feet high. Each raised semicircle will hold half the total number of the glass panels. Since they will be raised, visitors will be able to place mementoes to those lost.

“I’m very excited to move these projects forward,” said Mayor Dawn Zimmer in the press release. “I thank all the community for their input and working to arrive at consensus on these projects...”

For a depiction of the memorial visit www.hobokennj.org/departments/community-development/open-space-acquisition-and-development/9-11-memorial/.

Vanessa Cruz can be reached at vcruz@hudsonreporter.com