Erin council has given the okay to spend up to $2,500 to repair the local cenotaph after receiving a request from the Erin Legion.
A letter from Doug Kirkwood, service officer with the Legion, addressed concerns with loose flagstones on the walkway and around the base of the cenotaph, as well as loose mortar on the walkway and small stones on the cenotaph in need of repair.
“It does need work … it is starting to fall apart,” said Mayor Allan Alls.
He said he broached with the Legion the subject of moving the cenotaph and “maybe even improving the size,” because the current site is “very crowded” and “obscure.”
However, the land on which the current cenotaph is located was donated to the town for that reason.
“I don’t think we want to get into that,” said Alls. “We have enough concerns in our community without raising the ire of people that are attached to that area.”
Councillor Jeff Duncan said he was opposed to moving the cenotaph, but supported its repairs.
“The work does need to be done,” Duncan said.
“It’s one of those things that if you don’t keep up the sort of minor stuff, you end up getting more major issues.”
Council approved allocating the funds to fix triangular flagstones leading to the walkway, re-point locations in the walkways and surrounding platform, re-point stones in the monument column and clean the monument to restore its original shade.
The cenotaph, located at Main and Union Streets in the village of Erin, was erected in 1956.
Kirkwood recommended the work be done prior to the Remembrance Day service in 2018 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Armistice of the First World War.
