Fire Fighter Memorial ready to break ground
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Amy Gregson – Times Reporter
The ground is ready to be broken on the new Strathmore Fire Fighters Associations Memorial Park after Town Council gave their blessing April 7.
A plan has been developing over the past couple of years, which requires getting community sponsors on board and fundraising in place.
“It’s humbling,” said Muri Furzer, fire chief. “Due to the financial situations in some businesses, [it’s good to see] that everyone is still able to come together and contribute to a project that has a lot of significance.”
Furzer said the memorial is being built for a couple of reasons: one, to coincide with the 100th year anniversary of the Strathmore Fire Department; and secondly, a lot of communities are building memorials as the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 World Trade Centre attackes is occurring in 2011.
The park will be built on the northwest side of the fire hall in the vacant lot and will not interfere with the trees that already exist there, or the baseball diamonds.
The project has been entirely funded by community sponsors, including ACTO Gas, Eagle Lake Nurseries and Heritage Concrete.
The entire park is 40 square feet in size and features a 30 ft concrete circle with the Strathmore Fire Department logo in the middle and a statue of a fire fighter.
The statue will feature a flame that will be lit for special occasions. The Association had looked to have a flame constantly buring, but said the cost was too much and it would be too harmful for the environment.
There will be a circle of benches and greenery around the outside so that people can come sit and have lunch.
The association said they wanted it to appeal to people so they would stop and enjoy the park.
It will also feature ambient lighting so people can enjoy it at night.
“We are doing everything we can to make this happen by July 1st,” said Furzer.
Council members were pleased with the design and gave their blessing to the project.
The Association also asked that council eventually consider building a side walk from the memorial to the children’s water park and Kinsmen Park so that all are easily accessible to one another.
Council said they would consider this in the future.
“On behalf of the fire fighters association, we’d like to thank all the members of the community who helped us out,” said Furzer. “We’re definitely open to anyone else who would like to contribute through a small donation or whatever to build the park and expand on it.”