First responders, elected officials will be part of 9-11 observance on Friday

By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 9 September 2015 at 12:00 am

File photos by Tom Rivers  – This 9-11 flag was raised outside the Elks Lodge on West State Street after a memorial service this morning in Albion.

ALBION – Friday will mark 14 years since terrorists attacked the United States, claiming nearly 3,000 lives when they crashed airplanes into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a field in rural Pennsylvania.

Larry Montello, a leader in the American Legion locally, has been planning Sept. 11 memorial services in Orleans County since 2005.

“Everybody is getting relaxed and forgetting about what happened that day,” Montello said. “It’s part of history.”

He will lead a service at 10 a.m. Friday at the Elks Club on West State Street in Albion. Congressman Chris Collins, State Sen. Robert Ortt, State Assemblyman Steve Hawley and County Legislator Don Allport are expected to attend and speak at the event.

Orleans County Legislator Don Allport, left, teams with State Assemblyman Steve Hawley and Larry Montello, a leader with the American Legion, in raising the 9-11 flag.

Police officers, firefighters and paramedics also will attend and light candles in memory of 343 firefighters and 60 police officers who were killed in the attacks.

There also will be a candlelight vigil at 6 p.m. Friday by the courthouse. The ladder trucks from the Albion and Medina fire departments will hold a giant American flag as part of the vigil.

Montello and supporters of the event had a spaghetti dinner about a month ago to raise money for wreaths for the ceremony, and small flags to be handed out at the vigil.

Montello said the community is welcome to attend the memorial service and vigil.