Hamilton Post
MARCH 2019
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Mixed month for TWW
Common culture unites Irish orgs
Lead issues persist, but utility officials say things are improving
March 2 event to kick off month of celebrations
By roB antheS
By philip Sean curran Mercer County has been home to Irish-Americans for generations, a heritage that they again will celebrate this month. Members of the Irish Community of Greater Mercer County will lead into St. Patrick’s Day by having a Catholic Mass on March 2 starting at 10 a.m. at St. Anthony Church on Olden Avenue in Hamilton followed by raising the Irish flag outside the congregation. It will be the first in a series of events that will include St. Patrick’s Day parades in Hamilton and in Robbinsville on successive Saturdays, March 9 and 16. Mercer County is home to 10 Irish-American organizations. While there has been friction at times in the past, all of the groups will come together as they have for the past two years to celebrate their shared heritage and Catholic faith. “So we thought it would be a good idea to invite everybody to participate in an annual Mass and a flag raising early in March just to kind of kick off the Saint Patrick’s Day season,” said Kevin Meara, an organizer of the event. “We wanted to keep that CathoSee IRISH, Page 14
ranthes@communitynews.org
Rachel, Josh and Aliyah Blaney are all smiles after reuniting during an event at Morgan Elementar y School. Josh Blaney was deployed with the Air National Guard in Kuwait.
Hero dad returns home Airman back from deployment surprises daughter at Morgan Elementary School By keVin kunZMann Josh Blaney’s hands shook so wildly as he stood waiting in the hallway that it caught the attention of a few nearby teachers. In the past year, the senior airman in the New Jersey Air National Guard’s 108th Wing, had said goodbye to his wife Rachel, his five-year-old Aliyah, and his then-one-year-old
Josh Jr. He stepped away from his job at PSE&G, left his Hamilton home and his young family, and began a six-month security detail deployment on an Air Force base in Kuwait. Even when considering the difficult goodbyes Blaney had to endure last July, it was this hello that was giving him anxiety in the hallway of Morgan Elementary School on Jan. 30. Orchestrated by Blaney, Rachel, Aliyah’s kindergarten teacher Deborah Gigliotti and Morgan principal Michael Giambelluca, this surprise visit would be the first time he saw his daughter since June. “I was beyond words—
there’s not a rank for it,” Blaney said. “I was standing outside the door, my hands were shaking from how nervous I was to see her. I just wanted to see my kids.” On the other side of the door, Rachel read to Aliyah’s class and another kindergarten class in the auditorium “Hero Dad” by Melinda Harden, a children’s book the compares fathers in the military to superheroes. At the moment when she read a line about fathers having to go away for awhile, her voice began to break and tears welled in her eyes. Giambelluca called out, “Aliyah, look who’s here!” See AIRMAN, Page 10
The results are in, and they’re not what Trenton Water Works customers had hoped. For the third time in the last four testing periods, TWW has violated the federal action level for lead. More than 11 percent of samples taken by TWW in the second half of 2018 had elevated lead levels. The highest sample, from a home on West Paul Avenue in Trenton, was 1,430 parts per billion—nearly 100 times the federal limit. TWW officials, for their part, say they continue to take steps needed to correct the problem. TWW assistant director Kristin Epstein said TWW has fast-tracked the installation of a system intended to prevent lead in corroding pipes and fixtures from leaching into water. Epstein said she expects the system to be online for 80 percent of TWW’s service area, including the entire suburban portion, this spring. To prove they’re working in good faith, TWW officials pointed to data released by the City of Trenton last month that shows the amount of potentially dangerous disinfectant byproducts in the water has decreased significantly since the summer and now is well below state limSee WATER, Page 12
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