New memorial in the works
Andrea Macko, Staff Reporter In response to citizens’ complaints, requests from the St. Marys Legion and the feeling that “there’s more we can do to honour those who have served in Canada’s uniform,” in Mayor Jamie Hahn’s words, town council has taken the first step in redesigning and improving the Cenotaph area to honour all veterans.
Currently, the town’s Cenotaph only honours veterans of World War I; Mayor Hahn told council that, at the end of World War II, the town chose to commemorate the fallen via St. Marys Memorial Hospital instead of a separate memorial. The names of those who died in World War Two, as well as the veterans of the Korean War, and World War I veterans who died as a result of the war after their return, were placed on plaques on the town hall.
The Legion has also asked that the small park to the east of town hall be officially named ‘Memorial Park.’
A committee has been created, including Randy Le Blanc, president of the St. Marys Legion; Charlie Albers, president of the Army Navy club; local stonemason Jeff LeBlanc; Museum curator Mary Smith; local military historian Richard Holt, and citizen Karen Coddington.
The project could qualify for partial funding under Veterans’ Affairs Cenotaph Restoration project, Hahn says, which can provide up to half the cost of upgrades, to a maximum of $25,000.
Concept drawing and sketches will need to be drawn up for the application, and the Mayor says it could include benches, another memorial stone, and landscaping. The committee will be meeting again in the coming weeks, and suggestions from the public are welcome (call the mayor’s office at
519-284-2340, ext. 246, or e-mail jhahn@town.stmarys.on.ca).
Hahn hopes the improvements will be ready in time for this year’s
Remembrance Day. He says that “the community embraced the other two ideas” —
naming the driveway around the Flats “Veterans Circle” and creating a
Remembrance Day flag-placing ceremony at the cemetery on November 11 — so
upgrading the Cenotaph area would be “another way to honour our veterans.”