Community Memorial Park

Community Memorial Park Dedication Ceremony

June 27, 2012 6:00pm

History:

The project started when Lion John Rabideau came to the Supervisor of Riga and Mayor of Churchville at the Riga Winterfest and asked if there was a central place that could be established to memorialize our community members.
  • Committee was established with members from the Village, Town and Lions club.
  • January 2009 contacted Jon Ehrmentraut for a concept plan
  • April 2009 Concept plan presented for Phase I and Phase II
  • June 2009 a cost proposal to build Phase I

January 2010 Dave Becker agreed to help build the rock wall

Spring of 2010 volunteers collected the rocks for the wall

  • Lion Marty Molinari and Dave Becker offered rocks from their fields
  • Jim’s Service, Louis Landscape and Andy Vargo offered trucks to bring the rocks from the fields to this location
  • Many Lion volunteers loaded the rocks onto the trucks, some even caught poison ivy in the process.
  • Sidebar – I even know of a person who brought a ‘pinkish’ colored rock from their home and added it to the pile of rocks…knowing that when the wall was built, their rock would be somewhere in this wall.
  • Summer of 2010 the wall was completed by volunteers
    • Led by Dave Becker and his rock wall building expertise, Mayor Nancy Steedman, Lion Jim Ehrmentraut and Councilman Brad Obrocta built the wall….with Dave, Jim and Brad doing most of the work. I helped, but was mostly the photographer.
    • Boy Scout Tyler Swevtman completed the bricked area for his Eagle Scout project under the guidance of Scoutmaster Ray Ehrmentraut and Scout Leader Ron Rugalis.

Benches were installed

  • Village of Churchville
  • Town of Riga
  • 2 benches from the Churchville Chamber of Commerce
  • Churchville Lions Club
  • Riga Bi-Centennial Committee and Waste Management
  • Bricks engraved by JBR Graphx (Tim and Devon Jessop)
  • Stone sign donated by John Housaman and then engraved and medallions installed by JBR Graphx (Tim and Devon)
  • And throughout this whole building process the Village DPW crew assisted with manpower and equipment. Dirt had to be dug and moved, bricks to be installed and much more.
  • Thank you to all who helped!!!

We thank all who helped make this possible and are proud to dedicate this Memorial Park!