April 16, 2014 • www.theobserver.com • Vol CXXVI, No. 47
COVERING: BELLEVILLE • BLOOMFIELD
Lost medal recovered from Pa. By Ron Leir Observer Correspondent KEARNY – For more than two decades, it sat – carefully preserved – in a Pennsylvania residence. Next month, however, the Purple Heart medal awarded posthumously to a long-dead Kearny serviceman will be returned to the soldier’s hometown to be stored in a place of honor. Bill Sweeney, outreach coordinator for the Kearny VOICE (Veterans Outreach Information Community Education) project, co-sponsored by the local American Legion Auxiliary and American Legion, said the medal was conferred on Army Pvt. Wilfred J. Warhurst Jr., a World War II veteran killed in action Jan. 19, 1945, in Europe. Warhurst’s name is engraved on a bronze plaque, along with the names of other Kearny hero veterans, that is part of a permanent display mounted in the lobby of Kearny Town Hall. Sweeney said that last September, Tony Cappiti, the-then commander of the United Veterans Organization of Kearny, got a call from Army Capt. Zachariah Fike and his nonprofit organization Purple Hearts Reunited, which collects lost medals and seeks to return them to recipients or see LOST MEDAL page
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• EAST NEWARK • HARRISON • KEARNY • LYNDHURST • NORTH ARLINGTON • NUTLEY
1.7B to clean Passaic’s T lower 8 miles NEWARK –
he U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced last Friday, April 11, that it plans to undertake the most costly public waterway cleanup in its 43-year history. At a press conference held at Newark Riverfront Park, EPA Regional Administrator Judith A. Enck said the agency will remove 4.3 million cubic yards of toxic sediment from the lower eight miles of the Passaic River, from Newark Bay to the Belleville/Newark border. The lower eight miles of the 80-mile-long waterway that runs through seven counties are “the most heavily contaminated section of the river,” according to an EPA press release, which says that, “The sediment [in the river] is
Phtoo courtesy U.S. EPA
see RIVER FIX page
Signs warn not to eat fish caught from the polluted Lower Passaic.
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Feds won’t pay for more firefighters Two neighboring West Hudson communities have been shut out in their bids to snag federal funding to hire more firefighters. Kearny Fire Dept. and Harrison Fire Dept. each applied for a share of SAFER (Staffing for Adequate Fire & Emergency Response) grants but each was
36 new firefighters for two years. In a denial letter sent to Kearny Fire Dept., SAFER overseers said, “In fiscal year 2013, FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) received over 1,500 SAFER applications requesting more than $1.67 billion in federal
turned down. For Kearny, it was the third rejection in as many years; for Harrison, the second knockdown. Kearny had applied for $1,974,525 to pay 15 new firefighters’ wages and benefits for two years; Harrison had sought $6 million to subsidize
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assistance. The large number applications received and the finite amount of available funding resulted in many worthy applicants not being funded and underscores the highly competitive nature of this program.” see SAFER page
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