Even though the Activities Committee might not thought it important to honor those who died in the service of our country, Mayor Gross was determined to remember them.
I received a call this morning that the Mayor was at the West Easton WWII Memorial laying a wreath. Giving my best Jimmy Olsen: Cub Reporter impersonation, I quickly grabbed a crayon, wrote “Press” on the back of an envelope and stapled it to my forehead.
I arrived in time to catch Mayor Gerald Gross before he departed.
Mayor Gross conveyed some thoughts about the fiasco of the Activities Committee’s apparent lack of interest in a Memorial Day Ceremony this year.
He told me that when he was a boy a Memorial Day Ceremony was held every year. He told of how he and his friends would position themselves among spectators in order to scramble for the brass casings ejected from the rifles of the honor guard.
Though he was uncertain of when the ceremony ended for some years, he said it was started again in 1990 and this was the first year since 1990, that no community ceremony had taken place.
He was at a loss to explain why the head of the Activities Committee, Bill Bogari Sr., didn’t organize the community event this year, or notify anyone on Council of his intent.
“Bogari had done a great job over the past 5 years in organizing the town’s activities. I don’t know why this happened.”
Mayor Gross went on to say that he and the council would be looking for ways to ensure that it doesn’t happen again. “There was a lack of communication,” he said.
What was important to the Mayor was that the servicemen and servicewomen who gave their lives defending our country be remembered this day.
“It isn’t about us. It’s about them,” Mayor Gross said as he looked toward the WWII Memorial.
He went on to say that he received a lot of phone calls from residents that were disappointed in the lack of a ceremony. “It would have been nice to have the Wilson [High School] Band, veterans, and [PA Representative] Bob Freeman here today. If the Activities Committee had told us at the beginning of May that they didn’t want to organize it, for whatever reason, we would have gotten it done.”
The memorial contains the names of 4 West Easton residents who died in WWII.
Disclaimer: On January 4, 2016, the owner of WestEastonPA.com began serving on the West Easton Council following an election. Postings and all content found on this website are the opinions of Matthew A. Dees and may not necessarily represent the opinion of the governing body for The Borough of West Easton.
