In honor of the 10-year anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the Village of Saddle Rock will hold a memorial dedicated to recently deceased Mayor J. Leonard Samansky, who spent his final months finishing a documentary on 9/11 for public access television that will be unveiled at the memorial.
A service will be held at the 9/11 Memorial Bridge, likely followed by a presentation before moving onto Saddle Rock Village Hall for a simple reception, said Village of Saddle Rock Mayor Dan Levy.
The 9/11 memorial was a project spearheaded by Samansky, and taken up after his death by Levy and Village Clerk Donna Perone.
“We basically had to take care of that,” Levy said. “He invested so much in it, to let it fizzle right now would be unjust.”
During the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Samansky served as emergency management chief for Nassau County, only going home to shower. When the World Trade Center collapsed it also took out New York City’s emergency management office, but within hours Nassau County provided radios and other equipment.
Samansky preserved the pictures and messages that were left on the bridge after the attack, which appear in his documentary, “We Remember.”
Widow Shirly Samansky said the documentary meant a great deal to her late husband.
“He was so sick, and he was rushing to finish it,” she said. “When he saw the people on the bridge watching the buildings burn, it really affected him. He felt that people should remember and never forget. The first time we both watched it, we both cried.”
She said many of the copies will go to members of the Vigilant and Alert fire companies.
“I think it is an amazing piece of work that he created and thought about,” said Great Neck/North Shore Public Access Television Executive Director Shirley Ann Bruno, who helped Samansky achieve his vision. “For those of us who were there on that bridge, it is almost too hard to watch.”
Samansky had originally intended to do the voice over for the documentary, but was unable due to his failing health.
“He was quite ill during the creation of a lot of it, and he didn’t let anyone know,” Bruno said. “I was so glad that we were able to make what he wanted actually happen.”
At the memorial, 1,000 copies of his DVD will be handed out, thanks to donations solicited by Samansky from individuals and businesses.
“And that was amazing that he was able to get it,” Bruno said.
Levy said we need to remember what happened on 9/11 so future generations will be educated.
“Just like the Holocaust, if you don’t talk about it, somebody down the road will say it didn’t happen,” he said. “We have an entire generation of school children that have not seen, were not around.”
