| Katelyn Polantz

katelyn.polantz@roanoke.com, 381-1669

CHRISTIANSBURG -- A proposed Montgomery County public safety memorial received Monday night the board of supervisors' promise for space outside the Montgomery County Courthouse.

A committee of law enforcement, fire and rescue workers plan to install a black granite monument and three benches that honor public safety workers killed on duty.

Capt. Robert Hall of the Sheriff's Office proposed the plan to the board Monday night, and the board unanimously voted to support the project for the corner of West Main and South Franklin streets in Christiansburg. The monument may cost about $25,000, Hall said. The committee plans to seek donations and has not asked the board for funding, he said. Hall said construction will come after an examination of county fatalities.

So far, the committee has four names of officers to be listed on the monument:

n Eric Sutphin, a Montgomery County sheriff's deputy patrolling a trail on bicycle who was shot by an escaped jail inmate in 2006;

n Scott Hylton, a Christiansburg police officer who was attacked and fatally shot at a convenience store in 2003;

n Terry Griffith, a Christiansburg police officer who died in 1994 after being shot while chasing a suspected shoplifter;

n And Mark Polan, a Blacksburg volunteer firefighter who lost control of a fire truck while responding to a mobile home fire in 1990.

The committee is considering etching Bible verses or other sayings on the monument as well, Hall said.