A makeshift memorial of flags stands where once stood a memorial bench dedicated to PFC Albert Jex. The bench was destroyed by vandals overnight Friday. A new bench is being constructed and funds are being raised to find those responsible. (ENP FILE PHOTO BY HEATHER N. GRIMMER)

Bench may have new home once completed

BY SCOTT LEFFLER
scott.leffler@eastniagarapost.com

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The memorial bench in honor of PFC Albert Jex will be replaced within four to six weeks, according to Elaine Farchione Sobieraski of Orleans Monument Company.

The $2,100 bench will be completely redone instead of being repaired due to the difficulty in repairing granite. The monument company is picking up the tab on the new memorial.

Lockport-area residents and businesses have lined up to help replace the monument and find whoever is responsible for its destruction overnight Friday.

"I am in awe the way the entire community has rallied behind this family," Farchione said this afternoon.

Once the bench is recreated, it may be relocated if Jex' mother Cathy MacFarlane has anything to say about it. The downtown location at Locust and Walnut streets is problematic for the security of the bench. And there are other places in the city that make more sense.

"Now I'm on the search for a new home for it," MacFarlane said. Her first choice? Lockport High School. It has a number of positives going for it, including visibility. And "the teachers could use it as a teaching tool," she said.

The Albert Jex memorial bench was found Saturday morning in pieces by Kim Milani of Sub Delicious. Now the restaurant is helping to find those responsible and raise money for a scholarship fund in Jex' name.  (CONTRIBUTED BY BILL RUTLAND)

Setting the bench up at the high school — near the flag pole — would require Board of Education approval. The matter must first be approved by the board's facilities committee, which is likely to take the matter up at a meeting Thursday night.

Board member John Linderman, who serves on the facilities committee, said he's in favor of the idea. "In general, I think it's a pretty good idea," he said, adding it would be a "great reminder of the sacrifice he made."

Marietta Schrader, another member of the facilities committee, neither supports nor opposes the idea but will give it consideration at the meeting.

Should the proposal get past the facilities committee, it would have to be approved by the board as a whole.

David Nemi, vice president of the Board of Education, said he likes the idea in theory but wants to reserve his final decision until it goes through the proper channels.

"I have no problem with it personally," he said, "but I'm going to wait to hear what they have to say."

If not the high school, MacFarlane suggested it could go to Veteran's Park across from ENH-Lockport.

Aside from the replacement of the bench, community members have started drives to collect funds for a reward for the vandals' arrests and a scholarship fund at LHS in honor of Jex.

Kim Milani of Sub Delicious said that the reward fund is currently up to $634 and still growing. While Sub Delicious and Lockport resident Pete Robinson started the fund with large donations, others have added what they could to it.

"We had a woman who came in and said, 'here's all I have," Milani said. Her $4 donation shows the spirit of the Lockport community.

"It's not okay that this happened," Milani said. "How ashamed that we should all be that this happened there."

Milani also said a fundraiser is being planned to feature musician Jeremy Hoyle of the Jeremy Hoyle Band and the Strictly Hip. Details on that are still being hashed out, she said.

Lockport businessman David Ulrich said he offered to pay for a replacement bench — he paid for the first one — but Orleans Monument Company had already committed.

What does MacFarlane think of all this support? "There are angels that walk among us ... I'm just very grateful."

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