Students in Union City have been receiving a lot of accolades lately. In the past few months alone, the high school robotics teams have headed to nationwide championships and young scholars have been nominated for nationwide awards programs.
Could the achievements be karma from the city’s prizewinning past?
Union City is the former home of a Nobel Prize winner in physics (Frederick Reines) and a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner for poetry (W.S. Merwin).
And it is those achievements that local historian Kathie Pontus is hoping to memorialize as an inspiration for today’s students.
“Knowing what someone else has done before proves what can be done,” said Pontus. “What an inspiration.”
For the past seven years, Pontus has been leading the charge to cultivate an appreciation of local history. A lifelong resident of Union City, she came upon her recent hobby by accident.
“I wanted to research my own house,” said Pontus. “I went to the library, but when I got there, there was nothing.”
“We should afford to honor people that give town honor.” – Kathie Pontus
________
As a neighborhood historian, Pontus became a driving force in renaming a local street as “W.S. Merwin Way.”
But her light on history was recently dimmed when her planned memorial plaques for Union City High School for both Merwin and Reines were halted by the Board of Education.
Braking the budget
Pontus, who originally brought her idea to Mayor Brian Stack and Commissioner Lucio Fernandez, eventually wound up working with Board of Education Spokesman Joe Lauro on her plan.
Confirmation of the plaque memorials was given at the end of the school year in 2009, and after some minor delays, it was eventually agreed upon to have the plaque dedications in April in conjunction with a student poetry contest for Poetry Month.
But on March 9, Pontus received a notice from Lauro stating that the plan has been put off until further notice due to the state’s recent freeze on all “non-essential” spending and the superintendent of schools being out sick.
“Given the advance time needed to produce these plaques,” said Lauro in his e-mail message to Pontus. “I don’t see this happening during this school year.”
Priorities
While Pontus is sensitive to the challenges the school district faces, she questions the validity of the delay. She noted that the district had a $38 million surplus, and she also says that the board held cultural events such as the Dominican and St. Patrick’s Day celebrations just days after she received the notice.
Both celebrations utilized school buses to offer free transportation and took place at Union City schools.
Regardless of whether they cost more or less than the plaques, Pontus said, “You have a school bus on the road at 6 p.m. at night. That’s an added liability for that bus being on the road, added gas, overtime for a driver; and at the building you have added costs for utilities, security, and maintenance.”
Pontus estimated the cost for the installation and the plaques to be approximately $8,000.
“We should afford to honor people that give town honor,” she said.
The two prize winners graduated from Union City’s high schools.
Lauro was unable to speak on behalf of the board regarding how much the other celebrations might have cost the district or how those expenses were determined to be “necessary.” Other representatives from the board were unable to be reached for comment.
Lauro did not have any information by press time on why the other celebrations went forward.
While Pontus said that she appreciates the city’s desire to honor the heritage of its current residents, she questioned the dismissal of the older ones.
“New history is fine,” said Pontus. “I think they should be documenting everything that goes on today because that’s the history of the future. But you can’t throw away the old. That’s part of what made here ‘here.’ ”
The future of history
Pontus is hoping that the memorial plan will come back together with a public showing of support for the project.
“[Residents] need to let the mayor and the Board of Education know that they’re for this,” said Pontus. “That this is a wonderful thing for the city to do.”
Lana Rose Diaz can be reached at ldiaz@hudsonreporter.com.