Gresk: Wheaton’s absence at 9/11 service no sign of disrespect

Wheaton officials came under fire by a resident for not attending the fire department’s Sept. 11 ceremony.

However, resident Stan Garrett said rather than criticize the council for skipping, he wanted to use the experience to make future commemorations better.

“I am asking you, as I ask of myself, what can we do together to make sure the next anniversary of 9/11 does not end up like this past one?” he said. “I will try to do more. I should have done more. I could have asked friends to join me or asked neighbors and asked them to come with me.”

Garrett told the council that he was the only person to attend the short ceremony at Fire Station One, 1 Fapp Circle, just northeast of County Farm and Roosevelt roads. He said perhaps the reason was that there was very little publicity for the event, outside of the city’s website and newsletter.

When he arrived and saw no one else there, he said he was discouraged. He immediately fired off a letter to Mayor Mike Gresk and the rest of the city council.

Gresk said he attended other Sept. 11 services that morning, including a 6:32 a.m. flag raising at Robbie Miller Square, a small parcel named after Robert J. Miller, a Wheaton resident, Afghanistan veteran and the man awarded the Medal of Honor.

Gresk said Garrett would be invited to a meeting of the city’s community relations commission. He said Garrett’s ideas, which include setting aside a week to honor emergency personnel next September, make him a good candidate for the commission, if he were interested.

As for Sept. 11’s ceremony, Gresk said he did not think the lack of attendance was meant as a snub.

“I’m amazed no one else attended,” he said. “But I don’t think it was a sign of disrespect. I think people were taken up with other situations. I know people who didn’t want to do anything. They wanted to stay alone with their own thoughts.”

But Garrett said the personnel should be held in higher regard.

“These men and women of both the fire and police departments deserve more,”

he said. “Some people may respond by saying what this would cost. My response to cost would be one word: community.”