Following five-year grace period, WYDOT will remove roadside tributes
JARED MILLER Star-Tribune capital bureau | Posted: Friday, September 26, 2008 12:00 am
CHEYENNE - If you travel Wyoming highways long enough, you'll see them: distinctive homemade crosses and memorials marking the places where loved ones died in automobile crashes.
The private memorials seem to pop up overnight, silent tributes left by heartbroken friends and family members. Nearly 300 of them dot the state's highways, according to the Wyoming Department of Transportation.
This week, to comply with state law prohibiting encroachment on the highway right of way, WYDOT will begin removing the homemade memorials.
In their place, the department offers immediate family members the option of state-approved memorials, placed at the edge of the right-of-way zone, that meet safety rules.
"This is an emotional issue, and no policy is going to please everyone," said WYDOT Director John Cox. "We sympathize with family members' desires to remember their loved ones, but we must meet our responsibility to maintain a safe highway system."
Private roadside memorials were officially banned in 2003, but WYDOT granted a five-year grace period to the 295 markers that existed when the rule was created. The grace period ends on Oct. 3.
David Salverson of Cheyenne, whose son, Kevin Salverson, was killed by a drunken driver in 2001, said private roadside memorials serve an important role in the grieving process for some people who have lost loved ones.
Still, he said he understands the need to keep the highway right of way clear for safety reasons.
"I understand both sides of the story, where they need to have one that is safe, and they don't want people out there in danger while they're putting them up," Salverson said.
Most states regulate roadside memorials, and the chief reason is safety, WYDOT officials said.
Memorials erected too near the highway create hazards for motorcyclists and automobile drivers, they said.
People who install and maintain private memorials are at risk of injury or death from moving traffic, officials said.
The memorials are also vulnerable to state highway maintenance workers who might inadvertently damage or destroy them with trucks and mowers.
"We believe having WYDOT personnel put up memorial signs is preferable to having family members put themselves in danger, or put other drivers in potential danger by allowing obstructions to remain in the highway clear zone," Cox said.
Department officials said they spent a year creating the state roadside memorial program back in 2002 and 2003. Public comment and focus groups helped shape the authorized roadside markers.
They settled on a sheet metal sign that looks like a headstone embossed with the image of a broken heart and a dove. Images that would single out any one religious group were avoided.
"They wanted to come up with something that appropriately recognized that a life had been lost, but stopped short of promoting any specific belief system," Cox said.
Immediate family members can request memorials in writing. WYDOT installs them free and leaves them in place for five years, which is roughly the life of a sign in the Wyoming weather, officials said.
If the family likes, the memorial can remain in place until it is no longer readable, when it will be removed by the state.
Or they can pay $50 - roughly the cost of production and installation'- and WYDOT will install a new memorial, which can remain in place up to five'more years.
Ten years is the maximum time memorials can remain in place.
"I thought five years might be a little bit incomplete, and if we gave them a one-time extension then they could come to terms with the fact that after 10 years it might be easier to let go of something being out there in the right of way signifying what happened," Cox said.
Last week, WYDOT notified families connected to the 295 remaining private memorials of the removal plans.
The department also sent notices to 35 families that took part in the state-approved memorial program when it was launched in 2003. Those memorials are now five years old and will be removed if the families don't act.
Department officials said they expect most people to take the news in stride, although it's hard to tell for sure.
"I wouldn't be surprised if we get some responses that objected to our taking them off the right of way, just because it's an understandably emotional issue," said Cox, adding that the transition to state-approved memorials has been a well-thought-out attempt to balance safety with the need to memorialize lost loved ones.
"It would be very easy for us to make the mistake of coming off, whether inadvertently or otherwise, as just a big government agency telling them what to do with something that's real important to them," Cox added.
"We wanted to avoid that at all cost."
Contact capital bureau reporter Jared Miller at (307) 632-1244 or at {M3jared.miller@trib.com.
* Last we knew: The Wyoming Department of Transportation banned private roadside memorials in 2003, but granted a five-year grace period for the markers in place at that time.
* The latest: That period has ended.
* What's next: The agency will begin removing the homemade memorials this week.]]->