Meadowmere Park street named after 9/11 victim

Meyer Avenue in the tiny hamlet of Meadowmere Park in Lawrence is now Capt. Thomas Jurgens Avenue.

A dedication ceremony was held Saturday in honor of Jurgens, a former New York State Court officer who died while trying to rescue people on 9/11.

About 150 people attended the morning ceremony, held next to the Meadowmere Park Fire Department, where Jurgens was a volunteer firefighter, said Mike Deery, spokesman for the Town of Hempstead.

Jurgens, 26, was on duty in lower Manhattan on Sept. 11, 2001, when he rushed to the World Trade Center to help people fleeing the burning towers. He was one of three state court officers killed.

Jurgens had married a few months before the attack. His wife, Joan, said after 9/11 that her husband was "always the first to respond" to a crisis. He was a trained emergency medical technician, and the son of firefighter Joe Jurgens.