By Matt Manochio (Daily Record)
Published: Saturday, September 11, 2010

Joe Moretti, co-owner of Service Metal Fabricating (left), discusses the project to make brass plates for the 9/11 memorial at ground zero with the job’s head mechanic, Larry Siegrrist. (Staff photo: Dawn Benko)

ROCKAWAY — One year from now, people will gather at the 9/11 Memorial and gaze upon the 152 brass plates outlining square memorial pools built in the footprints of Twin Towers.

Those plates will bear the names of the nearly 3,000 victims of Sept. 11, 2001, and Feb. 26, 1993, the date of the first terrorist attack on the World Trade Center.

Those names will be spelled correctly and precisely spaced — a Rockaway Borough-based company will make sure of that.

“This is a major undertaking,” said Jim Moretti, who co-owns Service Metal Fabricating Inc., on Stickle Avenue.

Moretti’s family-owned company, which makes metal parts for anything from treadmills to grills — won the bid to cut and engrave the parapets with the names of the dead.

“The respect for the people who died there is taken into consideration first … and the speed is secondary,” Moretti said of the special nature of this project.

Each parapet will be 10 feet long and 5 feet high, with a weight close to 1,100 pounds, Moretti said.

Brian Wyckoff, a project engineer from Mansfield, said the panels will be placed on a slant, the lowest point being 2 feet, 11 inches from the ground, and 3 feet, 6 inches at their highest.

Partaking in the construction of sacred memorials is nothing new to Moretti’s company, which his father, Joe Moretti, founded in 1982, and which he and his brothers — Joe Jr. and Bill — have run since 1995.

He said SMF build the base for the Morris County 9/11 Memorial in Parsippany.

Each name will be typed into a computer, which will then be cut into the brass with a water jet.

Instead of a laser, Moretti said a beam of water at a pressure of 55,000 psi will engrave the names into each plate.

SMF also will make some brackets and posts that will be used to build the memorial.

“A lot of this has to come together here,” Moretti said.

The parts and plates will be installed by a different contractor, but Moretti and his team will be there to make sure everything’s done to perfection.

None of the names has been engraved as the project is still in its planning phase, Moretti said, adding he’s hopeful the actual engraving will begin in October. He said the plates and parts likely will have to be delivered to the New York site in May 2011.