KEARNY — Wanna buy a brick?
As the Kearny Board of Education prepares to tackle the last big piece of its lingering high school improvement project — restoration of the front lawn — it’s enlisting help from John Q. Public.
BOE member Sebastian “Zibbie” Viscuso elaborated, saying the board has bought into a concept creating angled walkways diverging from the base of the high school’s front steps and extending onto both sides of the lawn area.
Each section of this path would run 140 feet and the path itself would measure six feet wide, he said.
And now — here’s where you come into the picture — each path to be filled in by dedicated brick pavers to be offered for public sale as family memorials or as tributes to the living … similar to the setup at Lincoln Middle School and an analogous layout in front of the North Arlington municipal building.
“We’re calling them ‘memory lane pavers,’ for the people of Kearny,’’ Viscuso said.
The pavers will be designed in patterns of blocks repeating every five feet along each path, he said.
Also, 10% of each paver purchased will be donated to a Kearny High School athletic team or extracurricular club so designated by the buyer, thereby offsetting some of the taxpayer money supporting student activities.
Viscuso said he’s in for at least two pavers — one for each side of his family — with the 10% contributions being donated to some of the teams for whom his grandchildren play. Julia Viscuso, a tri-athlete, splits her time among soccer, indoor track and softball while Joseph Viscuso can be seen on the volleyball court.
He credited past members of the KHS Student Government Organization for actually coming up with the concept.
“The idea came from meetings I had with them two years ago,” Viscuso said. “They wanted a pathway and a place to sit down. And bike racks. In essence, nobody had seen the front of Kearny High, with the scaffolds and trailers there, for 12 years.”
Benches — how many has yet to be determined — will be installed at intervals along each pathway and the bike racks will probably go on the perimeter of the south lawn, he said, with each rack accommodating 12 to 16 bikes.
Work on the pathways will be entrusted to a stonemason to be subbed out by Bennett Construction, the Kearny-based general contractor hired in July 2016 to complete the high school renovations, said Mark Bruscino, BOE operations director.
Val Hadshinow, a KHS alumnus of the 1950s, will execute the engravings on the pavers, he noted.
Getting the front lawn back in shape, putting in a sprinkler system, signs and a flagpole, along with the walkways, benches and racks, figures to run an estimated $100,000 — all of which is factored into the contractor’s price.
“We’re hoping to have it all done by June with a grand opening in September,” Viscuso said.
By his reckoning, there should be room enough to accommodate more than 4,000 pavers.
As of last week, KHS Athletic Director Vincent Almeida, who is keeping track of the pavers end of the project, said “about 50” orders had been placed for the commemorative bricks.
Three categories of pavers are available: 4 inches-by-8 inches, 3 lines with 15 spaces per line, one character (including spaces) per box, for $100; 8 x 8, 4 lines with 15 spaces per line, for $150; and 12 x 12, 5 lines with 60 spaces per line, for $250.
Order forms may be picked up at the KHS main office and returned to Almeida, care of the KHS Athletic Office, 336 Devon St. Checks should be made payable to Kearny Board of Education.
