A CALLOUS BENCHMARK

There is something inherently noble and good about a park bench bearing a memorial plaque; it is both practical infrastructure and sentimental remembrance combined in a single piece of outdoor furniture.

A commemorative bench provides rest to the weary. It also offers family members a way to remember a loved one with a simple tribute that gives back to the community in a meaningful way. Plaques on some benches tell of the fondness the departed had for that particular space where they may have played as a child or sought solace in the view or perhaps proposed to a sweetheart. What better way to celebrate someone’s life than by enhancing a place they deemed special?

How many have sat on these memorials and silently congratulated the City of Edmonton for providing such a thoughtful and worthwhile program?

But those good feelings were stripped away as abruptly as 33 bronze plaques pried from the wooden slats where they were inlaid, not as permanently as family members expected.

Changes to the city’s commemorative bench program in August 2016 now require families to pay maintenance fees every 10 years.

Those who participated in the program before then thought they were honouring friends and loved ones “through the purchase of a park bench” for $2,100, according to city literature at the time. Each bench will bear a plaque “to serve as a lasting tribute.”

For commemorative bench purchasers like Barbara Dalton, a demand from the city to pay $2,500 now and every decade thereafter, appears to have broken the original purchase agreement. Adding insult to injury, the bronze plate bearing her late mother’s name on a bench overlooking the river valley was pried off and replaced with an advertisement for the bench program.

The city is reconsidering its actions.

It’s surprising that officials didn’t foresee the ensuing outrage that would result from jimmying the name of a dead person off a memorial bench if family members are unable or unwilling to pay and plugging the space with a tacky promotion. Such cold-hearted treatment of previous participants is the worst possible publicity for commemorative benches.

If the program was too expensive to run, few would blame the city for making changes but grandfathering the original bench buyers from new fees would have been a less callous way to go; it’s not previous clients’ fault that the city didn’t do a better job forecasting the costs.

By shaking down those who purchased benches in good faith to honour loved ones, the city has tainted what was once a feel-good program.