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Creative Fernie fence proposed

A Fernie local hopes to brighten up the Rotary Park chain link fence with an array of used skis.

A Fernie local hopes to brighten up the Rotary Park chain link fence with an array of used skis.

During the December 15 council meeting, Evan Thibaud, who has lived in Fernie for just over a year, proposed lining up the city fence with used skis and past Fernie Alpine Resort seasons passes as a way of honouring his late friend Seth Eichenthal.

“Last year on New Years, a good buddy of mine passed away on a ski trip in Austria and his mother is asking for all of his friends to do something in his name, a service of some sort,” Thibaud said. “We should ask the community if they would want to donate skis and we can attach skis to that fence. The idea was also to mount last year’s seasons tickets.”

He went on to say, “I think it would be something cool and something neat to do considering how many people around the world come here to partake in our world famous ski hill. It would be cool if that person left and they got to leave their mark on the town that meant so much to them for one season.”

Although the city embraced the idea, several staff members were concerned over the stability of the fence.

Mayor Mary Giuliano stated, “It sounded like a fantastic idea when I heard about it, we only have one problem…I don’t think that chain link fence is strong enough.”

Chief Executive Officer Jim Hendricks reiterated Giuliano’s thoughts, noting that the fence looks very tired and may not be able to support hundreds of skis.

Despite concerns over the stability of the fence, council said they would look further into what they believe to be a unique idea and possibly even look at replacing or reinforcing the fence in order to complete this project.

“It certainly would be colourful,” Giuliano said.

Thibaud added, “We can take something that happens to be an eye sore and end up making it quite unique and something special that might actually attract more people to Fernie.”