Smashed plaques still gone

Photo: Chelsea Powrie

A bare spot indicates where one of dozens of plaques, recognizing donors and volunteers, used to be on the McCulloch trestle bridge.

Plans are slowly moving along to replace a number of commemorative plaques that were destroyed along the McCulloch trestle bridge on the KVR trail between Penticton and Naramata this summer, though the city is unsure exactly what the replacement will look like. 

John Fenske, works superintendent with the City of Penticton, said his department responded to reports that signs had been smashed a few months ago, and found many of the composite plastic plates altered or destroyed.

"It looked like the guy took a hammer to them really, it's just senseless vandalism," Fenske said. "Why would someone even do that?"

Fenske decided that leaving the few remaining unaffected plaques behind wouldn't look right, so all of them were removed. Now, they are working with Greyback Construction, who oversaw the original installation back in 2002, to try and recreate the list of volunteers and donors to the bridge project which the plaques had commemorated. 

"We have a partial list, but some of the plaques were broken so bad you couldn't read them," Fenske said, adding that Greyback has some records too, but "it's hard, because it was so long ago now."

Fenske couldn't say for sure what the restoration plan will be, but one idea that has been floated is a single large plaque instead of multiple small ones, once the complicated work of gathering all the names that should be included is finished.