Hackensack, NJ Community Message Boards

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Related prior story: Chief's demand prompted 2 to leave meeting

Below are pictures of the memorial.

My guess is that some of these soldiers died of influenza.  Click here for more information.  They may have fought at the Hindenburg Line or battles after that. Click here.  This was toward the end of WWI.  Another possibility is that they were part of the New Jersey National Guard's 29th Division which was engaged in the Meuse-Argonne Offensive in France.  This offensive took place from September 26, 1918 through November 11, 1918. Click here.

We are still interested in learning about who these soldiers were from a local perspective. Anyone researching this should be aware that Hackensack was still called New Barbadoes in 1918.  These soldiers might have been from areas that are now outside of the City.


Elwood W. Brockner

Donald Russell

Henry Douglas

Rolfe Willis Proctor

Fred Grapentine

Capt. Harry Doremus

Stephen T. Schoonmaker

Corp. Amasa F. Gurnee

Salvatore Trotta

Frank J. Van Wetering

John Park Hart

Russell S. Hastings

Walter Scott Brown




WWI Honor Wall at City Hall

The post that appeared here was split to a new topic: Karma Rating

Latest story:  Hope for hard-core homeless

To his credit, Tom Davis, the author of the above article, has always been an advocate of the homeless and those suffering from mental illness.

I'm annoyed that Mr. Davis made no mention about why the City of Hackensack did not put its full support behind the shelter.  He knows.

The City is often criticized for an economically depressed downtown.  While this problem is being addressed by the City and the Main Street Alliance, the new shelter will undoubtedly make this task harder.  As Mr. Davis points out, it appears the homeless numbers are growing.

In addition, the properties associated with providing care for the homeless are non-taxable.  As a result, city property owners are forced to pick up the slack in the form of higher taxes.  This exacerbates real economic growth.   

I wonder if The Record will ever do a serious piece about the lack of concern and assistance from other Bergen municipalities in fairly addressing this County "crisis".  County officials should re-distribute the burden.  Again I ask, why is Hackensack shouldering this responsibility by itself?

Albert Dib

Latest story:

New shelter, police HQ approved

There are a row of trees along Salem, under which are small plaques with the names of several WWI soldiers from Hackensack that died between September and December 1918. I notice some say "died" and some say "killed".  See below.

Someone asked me about it and we'd like to know how they died, if there are any remaining relatives and, generally, what their stories were.

Thanks for any information.

The following appeared in the July 13, 2005 edition of the Record:

The Concerned Citizens Organization of Hackensack strongly supports many of the suggestions set forth in "Hackensack's chance" (Editorial, July 3). Most particularly, we support the editorial's suggestion that this is the "opportunity for the city government to ease the distrust and alienation many minority residents feel toward law enforcement and City Hall."

Just recently, the state attorney general mandated that all police officers must go through a three-hour training course on racial profiling. They must also pass a test to show that they have learned this lesson. Police Chief Charles "Ken" Zisa must make sure this program is enforced, particularly at a time when the city is dealing with complaints about the behavior of its own police officers.

Institution of a civil complaint review board made up of both citizens and law enforcement officers would address these issues in a suitable manner.

We must make Hackensack citizens aware that such issues exist and are not to be swept under the rug. Chief Zisa has expressed his desire to resolve these issues. We now look to the newly elected mayor and council to address them as well.

Larry Riley and Blanche M. Stuart

Hackensack, July 6

The writers are president and secretary, respectively, of the Concerned Citizens Organization.