The cenotaph at Grand Parade should be ready in time for Remembrance Day, says city spokesperson Shaune MacKinlay. "But it's up to the veterans' group if they are going to have their ceremony," says MacKinlay. "They'll inspect it and make a decision in a few days."
During a routine maintenance of the structure this summer, workers discovered structural problems, and the cenotaph had to be completely dismantled and rebuilt. Crews were winding up that work last week.
Construction should also start soon on another monument in the Grand Parade---a memorial to fallen peace officers will be built in the centre of the grounds and, as seen from the perspective of the George Street/Carmichael Street corridor, at a position in mirror image to the cenotaph, closer to City Hall.
Fallen peace officers are those police and constables killed in the line of duty. The monument was designed by a group of artists associated with NSCAD, led by Cody Lee Stephenson. It will be in the form of a 14-foot high arch constructed with Litracon, a translucent concrete with fiber optic cables running through it, such that different intensity lighting can be applied through it.
The positioning of the peace officers monument in Grand Parade was the subject of heated debate during the design stage, and as recently as two weeks ago councillor Dawn Sloane attempted to convince council to move the monument to the southern section of Grand Parade so that it wouldn't interfere with concerts and plans for a skating rink. But councillors declined to upset police advocates and nixed Sloane's suggestion.
But according to city staffer Andy Filmore, there will still be room for a skating rink, which might be part of a reconstruction of the Grand Parade when the wall along Barrington Street is rebuilt, some time in the next five years. No one knows how much such a rink would cost, says Filmore.
