The Berlin
Cit itiz ize en
Volume 14, Number 33
Berlin’s Only Hometown Newspaper
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Firefighters escort Trade Center relics to Berlin By Daniel Jackson Special to The Citizen
Last September, Kensington Fire Rescue Chief Mark Lewandowski learned that steel from the World Trade Center was available to nonprofit organizations, governments, and other public entities for the purpose of creating monuments remembering 9/11. He immediately wrote a letter to the authories overseeing the distribution, requesting steel. “That afternoon, I went to the firehouse and the guys were saying ‘Hey we should do this — I just said, ‘well, I already wrote the letter.’” Aug. 10, 16 Kensington firefighters traveled to John F. Kennedy Airport in New York City to escort sections of steel from the twin towers back to Berlin in order to create a 9/11 memorial in town.
At the Connecticut border, Kensington fire department’s Squad 4 fire truck met the flat-bed truck hauling the steel and led the procession back to Berlin. Fireman Mark Diliberto said “It brings that whole day closer to home.” “It was the darkest day in the fire services. There is a lot of sorrow, but we are also extremely proud,” Lewandowski said. Thousands of civilians, as well as 343 New York firefighters, died when the World Trade Center collapsed Sept. 11, 2001. A month after he wrote the letter requesting the steel, Lewandowski traveled to JFK airport to select pieces for the Berlin memorial. The relics are stored in Hangar 17, where Port Authority
Photo by Daniel Jackson
Nancy Lewandowski and her husband, Chief Mark Lewandowski, in front of the transport carrying steel from the World Trade Towers. Behind the Lewandowskis are, in row two: John Corvi, Pat Buckley, Wil Jevitts, Liz Chase, Christopher Bay. Row 3: Tom Powers, Jeff Pajor, Ted Dombroskas, Mark Diliberto, Bob Brown, See Relics, page 8 Austin Focareto, Jarett Gdovin, and Jeff Gdovin.
Mom gives birth outside as Savage Hill neighbors keep watch By Olivia L. Lawrence The Berlin Citizen
A woman who gave birth outside her house on Savage Hill Road last week described the scene as “utter chaos” — still she’s grateful for the help she and her new baby daughter received from local emergency personnel. DeAndrea Lighty was resting at UConn Medical Center, Aug. 11, as she calmly described the events of Aug. 10 that resulted in the birth of her fourth child, Jeydah. She’d had contractions the night before and had been to the hospital, but doctors there had sent her home. Around 8:30 a.m. Aug. 10, “the contractions started coming fast,” she said. Lighty called her husband, a truck driver, and told him he needed to get home.
The Lighty family welcomes Jeydah, who was born in their Savage Hill Road front yard Aug. 10. From left: father Donavon Lighty, Juniya, 3, holding her baby sister, and Jayden, 5.
Donavon finished making one last delivery on his route, then raced home. He got his wife and their three
children into the car. “We were going to the hospital,” DeAndrea said, when it became clear that there
wouldn’t be time. DeAndrea’s mother called Hunters Ambulance. Police and paramedics arrived shortly and closed the road. Neighbors had started to gather outside. Paramedics told DeAndrea she couldn’t deliver in the car, but she was in too much pain to move far. They considered having her move into the house, but she wanted to stay close to the ambulance. “So I gave birth outside,”
she said. “It was utter chaos.” Her husband was very nervous, she said, and it seemed to her that the police were “a little nervous,” too. “And I was not happy,” DeAndrea said. Two ambulances, five paramedics and a couple of police officers attended the
See Birth, page 7
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