Some mountain bikers who frequent the Hartland Mountain Bike Park in Mount Work Regional Park may have noticed a bench—which was dedicated to the late Randy Tannock—has been replaced.
Tannock passed away around three years ago in 2021, after a hard-fought battle with cancer.
He was well known in the community, especially within the mountain bike community as he had been a champion of the sport in the region for many years.
When Tannock passed, a bench was installed at the Hartland Mountain Bike Park as a memorial to him.
Work to have this bench installed was done by his family, friends and the South Island Mountain Bike Community (SIMBS), through the Capital Regional District (CRD).
However, the CRD says that all benches and other structures in regional parks must be approved and installed by the CRD.
Because Tannock’s bench was not specifically approved, vetted or installed by the CRD, efforts were made in recent weeks to return the bench to those who built and installed it.
This was done as a part of a larger effort to install standardized benches throughout Mount Work Regional Park this summer.
The bench is now back in the hands of Tannock’s family.
Last week, a new bench was installed where the original once was that has been approved and vetted by the CRD, and it will remain there in perpetuity to memorialize Tannock.
The CRD told Victoria Buzz that although the new bench does not have a memorial plaque quite yet, the plaque from the original bench is being mounted on a pole that will be installed next to the new one on September 13th.
According to the CRD, no other memorial benches were removed from Mount Work Regional Park; however, several unofficial, non-memorial benches were also removed and replaced with standardized benches.
