Putnam Remembers its 9-11 Heroes

The Ground Zero cross consisting of World Trade center beams. istockphoto Hundreds of people are expected to crowd into the Carmel Cornerstone Park on Saturday for what has become a Putnam County tradition.

Saturday marks the ninth anniversary of the September 11, 2001, attacks and thanks to the efforts of the Stephen Driscoll Chapter of the Fraternal Order of Police and Putnam residents serving with the FDNY, Putnam’s eight heroes who lost their lives on that tragic day will be remembered during an 8pm ceremony.

FOP President James O’Neill promised that each year “we will light memory candles to remember the brave men who perished on that fateful day when the world turned upside down.”

The Courier’s Eric Gross will again read the names of the fallen followed by the tolling of a somber bell.

Putnam’s heroes include: Christopher Blackwell of Putnam Lake; Daniel Harlin, of Kent; Robert Minera, of Carmel; Thomas Kuveikis, of Kent; and George Cain, of Patterson, all members of the FDNY; Stephen Driscoll, of Lake Carmel—a member of the NYPD Emergency Services Unit; David Fodor, of Garrison—a tax accountant; and George Paris, of Carmel, an employee of Cantor Fitzgerald.

Saturday’s ceremony will have special meaning since the Putnam County— the USS New York Memorial will be unveiled.

Through the efforts of State Senator Vincent Leibell and Putnam Legislator Richard Othmer of Kent, the Hudson Valley Trust has undertaken the commissioning of a six-foot replica of the USS New York— a battleship constructed with steel recovered from the wreckage at Ground Zero.

The model will be placed on permanent display on Nov. 11 at the Putnam Bureau of Emergency Services to remember all those from Putnam County—both uniformed and not-uniformed— who helped at Ground Zero in the hours, days, and weeks following the terrorist attack.