Plans and providence played into major improvements in the area around the Salmon Arm Cenotaph.

Darin Gerow, the city's roads and parks manager, said members of Royal Canadian Legion Branch 62 asked Salmon Arm council to provide an electrical outlet to improve the sound system.

About the same time, council approved a staff recommendation to address road and sidewalk issues after engineers advised that traffic flow around the site could be improved. To that end the city closed off the Alexander Street NE road from Okanagan to Second Avenue NE. 

Gerow said the timing of the legion request to provide electricity to the cenotaph fitted easily into already existing city plans.

鈥淲e thought this was a great opportunity to do something,鈥� he said, noting the total $145,000 cost of the work came from general revenue and the BC Growing Communities Fund. 鈥淲e鈥檙e really happy it worked out,鈥� he said. 鈥淧ublic Works did much of the work and uncovered some poor soils, concrete and asphalt underneath the surface.鈥�

The work that also included new landscaping and irrigation, took place over several weeks last summer, created safer traffic flow and met with legion approval.

鈥淲e鈥檙e very pleased with the results,鈥� said Branch 62 President Lance Ewan, who noted other improvements will be in place for Remembrance Day this year.

A tent and chairs will be set up to accommodate residents from several seniors鈥� homes and others with mobility issues. 

As well as the regular Remembrance Day ceremony, Shuswap Middle School Grade 8 student Leticia Wigglesworth will read a short story she wrote about her great-great grandfather who was killed in action during the First World War. 

Her story won first place in the Royal Canadian Legion鈥檚 BC Yukon Command and took third place in the legion鈥檚 National Youth Remembrance Contest.