Despite the ground penetrating radar results still being unavailable to the city, plans to install a monument recognizing the lost souls scattered through Fernie’s gravesites are underway.
During the October 9 Cemetery Committee meeting, the committee pushed forward in their discussion of the monument that, as of this point, is set to be placed outside of the fenced area of the Monroe Cemetery.
The Cemetery Committee also discussed placing the names of the over 300 lost souls on the dedication monument.
“I think that we should put as many of the names as we have and recognize the course of events that led to the monument,” Coun. Randall Macnair said adding, “Those people should have a place in history.”
However, John Gawryluk, funeral director of Cherished Memories and an active member of the Cemetery Committee, said that before they can move forward with erecting the monument, they need to verify their years of research with city records.
Gawryluk noted that as time passes they will likely find additional names of people buried in Fernie and recommended purchasing a stone that allows for names to be added and removed, as documentation gets updated.
“Things do happen in history,” he noted. “As time goes on we will find documentation.”
But the Director of Leisure Services, Cameron Mertz, questioned moving forward with placing names on a monument without proper documentation.
Giuliano further questioned the availability of cemetery records stating that she was unaware of council having access to any cemetery records.
Mertz added, “Are there examples where we could erect a monument where we could pay tribute to our purpose without having names on it?”
But several committee members felt that the names were vital to the monument. Both Macnair and Gawryluk, expressed the need for names, with Gawryluk going as far as saying the monument should not even be erected if they are not going to recognize the names of those misplaced and the history that led to individuals being misplaced.
After years of researching Fernie’s lost souls, several committee members felt Gawryluk and Corlyn Haarstad’s findings are enough to move forward with the erecting of the monument.
“We have many of the pieces of information to move forward,” Macnair said. “If we didn’t have a strong idea of who was out there, I’d be more inclined to go the route Mr. Mertz is suggesting [but] we have a solid foundation.”
In terms of the lost records, both Gawryluk and Haarstad assured Giuliano that the cemetery records are in the basement of Fernie City Hall.
“I think all of this is a misunderstanding,” Haarstad noted, adding that records prior to 1948 were turned over to the City of Fernie and are readily available in the basement of the city hall building.
Concerns over funding were also brought up during the meeting, but Haarstad noted that if the area is deemed a historical site, there are grants they can ask for in order to cover funding before relying on city money.
“I don’t think you need to worry that we will be spending excess dollars,” Giuliano assured the public, noting that they will work diligently to ensure the cost of the monument does not exceed $30,000.
Another issue that was brought forward was the design of the monument. Gawryluk, who has an extremely invested interest in the design and installation of the monument, was under the impression that he would be able to bring forward his own designs.
This however, was deemed a conflict of interest, as Gawryluk is a member of the city run organization.
In response to this, Gawryluk offered to fund the entirety of the project in order to avoid said conflict, and a motion was put forward to accept a written funding proposal and review Gawryluk’s designs during the next Cemetery Committee meeting to be held on November 6 at 4 p.m.