Five new prominent Jersey City names added to Circle of Honor at 9/11 fountain
Published: Monday, August 15, 2011, 3:00 AM
By Kate Kowsh/The Jersey Journal

From the Jersey Journal: ...."Five new names will be added this year to the ?Circle of Honor? at the 9/11 Memorial Fountain in Journal Square.
In 2002, the fountain was rededicated as a memorial to Jersey City?s 37 victims of 9/11. In 2006, local personality Pat O?Melia started the tradition of honoring inspirational figures in Hudson County by having their names engraved around the fountain.
To date, there have been 58 dedications, including Jersey Journal columnist Earl Morgan and former Jersey Journal columnist Peter Weiss. Weiss died in 2003.
This year?s inductees are Judge Shirley Tolentino, former Congressman Frank Guarini, Sen. Robert Menendez, Heights Hope Block Association President Vincent McNamara, librarian/historian Cynthia Harris, and Kool & the Gang, whose founding members met when they were students at Lincoln High School in Jersey City.
The induction ceremony will take place at the fountain at 5??..

This is sad. The fountain hasn?t worked in years and the flagstones that surround it and the entire PATH plaza need long delayed comprehensive maintenance. The names around the fountain include at least one elected official accused by the F.B.I. of taking bribes. The fountain should have remained exclusively a 911 memorial. I?m saddened that local political flacks jumped on board to add the names of people we can?t all agree deserve to be honored. Couldn?t they inscribe their names on some other city structure instead of altering the 911 memorial for the sake of self aggrandizement? I would feel less inclined to complain about this unfortunate turn of events if I were to read of plans to refurbish the fountain and the area around it, but apparently the PATH plaza is simply going to be allowed to continue to deteriorate. Lest I sound like I have nothing nice to say about the plaza, I WOULD like to express my gratitude to whoever ensures that the flowers and shrubs of the landscaping there are always beautiful and in excellent condition. Maybe they should put that person in charge of the whole area and give them a realistic budget.