The work of the Belleville Historical Society in restoring military monuments and the military gravestones of fallen soldiers was recognized at Memorial Day ceremonies in two neighboring towns. The society was presented with commendations for their work from the Town of Montclair at the town’s morning ceremony and then by the City of Newark in the afternoon. Society volunteers have done restoration work in Belleville and seven other neighboring towns including Kearny, Nutley, Bloomfield, North Arlington, Montclair, Newark and Passaic.
The most important project, according to society president Michael Perrone, has been identifying and cleaning the military stones of all of the young men killed in action buried in the Essex County Veterans section of Glendale Cemetery in Bloomfield. The society began working there in March with almost three hundred stones of the fallen soldiers of World War II, Korea and Vietnam cleaned in time for Memorial Day.
Seen here, from left, are Cody Weng and Emmanuel Ramos-Jaramillo cleaning stones of fallen World War II soldiers at Glendale Cemetery in Bloomfield.
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Kevin A. Canessa Jr. is the editor of and broadcaster at The Observer, an organization he has served since 2006. He is responsible for the editorial content of the newspaper and website, the production of the e-Newspaper, writing several stories per week (including the weekly editorial), conducting live broadcasts on social media channels such as YouTube, Facebook, and X, including a weekly recap of the news — and much more behind the scenes. Between 2006 and 2008, he introduced the newspaper to its first-ever blog — which included podcasts, audio and video. Originally from Jersey City, Kevin lived in Kearny until 2004, lived in Port St. Lucie. Florida, for four years until February 2016 and in March of that year, he moved back to Kearny to return to The Observer full time. Click Here to send Kevin an email.