OPELOUSAS, La. — It has been about two years since some of the marble slabs that hold the names of St. Landry Parish Veterans started to fall off of the memorial in Opelousas. Many of those family members are asking when those repairs will be made.
"Unfortunately right now we are having problems with the panels staying up on the monument. Two years ago we had an extreme heat wave and some of our panels began to fall and break into pieces," explained Project Director of the St. Landry Parish Veteran's Memorial Patricia Mason-Guillory.
The broken slabs aren't the only concern for the families. Mistakes on the plaques and the omission of some names has relatives speaking out on Facebook. One person wrote, "Jonathan's name got left off of the list of casualties in the Iraq War, when Joseph A. Richard's name was finally corrected. How can this happen when there are only five names to remember?"
In response to the concerns, Mason-Guillory explained, "We are human, we're doing our best and we made an unfortunate mistake."
She said she understands the concerns and is aware of the issues and working hard to get them fixed.
"I wanna say to those families that have family names on the monument, we are so sorry but it was out of our control," she said apologetically.
Work should resume on the Memorial once drier weather moves into the area.
