Covid-19 memorial to be added to Dubois County Courthouse lawn
A group of volunteers will be allowed to place a memorial to the Covid-19 pandemic on the southeast lawn of the Dubois County Courthouse.
The Dubois County Commissioners agreed to allow the placement of the memorial at Monday’s meeting.
Chris Waltz and a group of volunteers have been pursuing the idea after floating it past commissioners in February. The group wants the memorial to acknowledge the pandemic and recognize those who have died from the disease as well as the many frontline workers.
The granite memorial will feature two benches and a pillar mounted on a stamped concrete pad that is about 10 feet in diameter.
“There will be inscriptions on it with two distinct messages,” Waltz told the commissioners on Monday. “One, to pay tribute to those front-line workers who bravely risked contracting an often fatal virus to keep our communities healthy, safe, nourished, and educated during the pandemic. The second message is to honor those residents of Dubois County who lost their lives to complications of the virus, and to their families that continue to grieve and, in many cases, were not able to be with them as they passed.”
The memorial will also feature some distinct images although they have not been completed yet. According to Waltz, when the inscriptions and images are finalized, the committee will bring them back to the commissioners for final approval.
In asking the commissioners to approve the project and placement on the courthouse lawn, the committee is also asking for an account to be set up by the auditor for the funds they plan on raising for the project. Waltz said the total cost of the project is around $20,000 and they are seeking grants through the Dubois County Community Foundation in addition to funds from local donors.
Taxpayer money won’t go to the creation and placement of the monument but the committee is asking the county to maintain it.
Commissioner Chad Blessinger stated he hadn’t heard any positive feedback on the project, but he had heard some negative comments. Blessinger stated he heard from an individual upset about the addition in light of the theme of monuments — Soldiers and Sailors Monument and the memorial book listing the Dubois County soldiers — around the courthouse honoring Dubois County veterans. He also heard suggestions for memorials for other diseases and social issues in the community.
Commissioner Nick Hostetter said he couldn’t think of anything that has impacted the world more than the pandemic.
“I can’t think of any other thing that touched so many lives whether you lost someone or not; whether you were an essential worker or not,” Hostetter said. “It just changed so much. Our school kids that went through this will look back 50 years from now and will still think about this as a life-changing moment. It changed everything. This affected every single one of us.”
Brames agreed with Hostetter.
“This is an unprecedented situation,” Brames said. “To me, the biggest reason for doing it … is the historical aspect of it.
He pointed out that the monuments on the square remind us our freedoms are fragile and we need to protect them.
“I think this monument will continue to remind us of what can happen, that this is probably not the last time this can happen,” Brames said. “What did we do right? What did we do wrong in reacting to this pandemic? The monument itself will continue to remind us that this happened and how we reacted to it and how everything changed.”
According to Waltz, the committee has hired Schum Monument to create the memorial and it will likely be put in place with a dedication ceremony next spring.
