Sprawl of roadside memorials vex cities

It’s unlikely we’re going to find out who the grumps are in Richfield who complained about the memorials at a bench built to honor a man who was killed in 2017.

But from the sound of KARE 11’s report, there are plenty of them, offended by the stuffed animals, wreathes, and flowers that adorn the area near where Jonathan O’Shaugnessy was killed in a crime that’s not yet been solved.

The memorials are common around our region, marking the spot where someone was killed.

“I was like why, you’re kidding me right? Why now?” Cynthia Kuntz, Jonathan’s mom, tells the station.

The city gave her until this week to clean it up, so she took an ax to get the ice-encrusted artifacts out.

The city, like many cities, doesn’t have a policy for these sorts or memorials, the type of which was wonderfully documented by former colleague Nikki Tundel in 2010.

The city says it welcomes tributes to O’Shaugnessy, but they have to stay on the bench or the concrete slab beneath it.