Field of Honor Flag Dedication, School Board, Sandy Anniversary This Week

The flags for the Bernards Township third annual Field of Honor will be dedicated on the Town Hall lawn in a ceremony that promises to be beautiful at 1 p.m. next Sunday, said the chair of the Bernards Township Beautification Task Force.

The field of American Flags will recognize and show honor to the veterans who have dedicated themselves to the protection of freedom, township officials said when the sale of flags to be flown was announced.

Scheduled speakers on Sunday are Bernards Township Mayor Carolyn Gaziano, Vic Carlson, a member of the leadership team from the homeless division of the Veterans Administration facility, and the CEO of Community Hope, Michael Armstrong, said Laura Begg, the Beatification Task Force chair.

The military brass band quintet from Fort Lee is scheduled play, and three Ridge High School senior accomplished in the music program will sing.

Also scheduled to be present are U.S. Congressman Leonard Lance, (R-Dist. 7) New Jersey District 21 Assembly representatives Jon Bramnick and Nancy Munoz, four Somerset County freeholders, including Peter Palmer from Bernardsville, members of the Bernards Township Committee and State Sen. Tom Kean (R-Dist. 21), Begg said.

The “Field of Honor” flags sold to area residents earlier this fall is a three- by five-foot flag, mounted on a six-foot pole, to again placed in precision rows on the lawn of the Bernards Township Municipal Building at 1 Collyer Lane in downtown Basking Ridge.

Flags will have a ribbon hand printed with an honoree’s name. The flags are due to remain up until Nov. 23. 

Even Superstorm Sandy couldn't stop the flags from going up in time last November, even though a dedication ceremony was called off as the township was left cleaning up fallen trees and attempting to restore massive power outages. About 20 volunteers got out and got about 13 flags up, which had been previously purchased by citizens to honor veterans.

The first anniversary of "superstorm" Sandy — an event that no one living in this area will forget — falls on this Tuesday. 

Along with remembering the event on an individual basis, the township has been preparing for similar emergencies by overhauling the municipal meeting room and installing a larger generator to keep town hall and municipal services operating during a major power outage such as those experienced in the last few years. 

The township also issued a list of ways that residents can prepared themselves, and that list was passed along through the township school district's email to residents as well.

The list includes way residents can prepare themselves for staying at home during a hurricane, and also for evacuation.

Also this week:

The Bernards Township Board of Education is scheduled to meet at 7 p.m. on Monday at the William Annin Middle School.

The Bernards Township Committee is scheduled to hold its open public meeting beginning at 8 p.m. on Tuesday at the Bernards Township Library, 32 S. Maple Ave., Basking Ridge, while the renovation of the courtroom and meeting room continues. Tax Assessor David Centrelli is scheduled to speak about tax assessments at the beginning of the meeting.

The Bernards Township Planning Board is scheduled to meet at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, also in program room B at the Bernards Township Library.