Village of Keremeos apologizes after memorial tree cut down

The Village of Keremeos is apologizing to the family of a drowning victim after a tree memorial honouring the late teenager was cut down.

19-year-old Derek James Woodrow died in a tubing accident on the Similkameen River in Keremeos on July 20, 2013.

The rope Woodrow used to connect himself to the air mattress he was floating on got stuck among the rocks in a treacherous and fast moving patch of rapids.

The popular teenager failed to resurface.

“He was stuck under, they say he went down and never came back up,” his mother Roanne Prince said on Thursday.

“He loved his family, he loved his friends, he loved this town, he grew up here, loved skateboarding and fly fishing, he was a great kid,” Prince added.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "He loved his family, he loved his friends, he loved this town, he grew up here, loved skateboarding and fly fishing, he was a great kid," Prince added.

Friends and family erected a cross on a tree near the accident scene that had Woodrow’s name and the phrase “forever young” on it.

For years the tree was a place for family and friends to come to mourn the tragic and untimely passing.

Prince said she was horrified to discover the memorial tree was recently cut down.

“I was devastated, completely devastated,” she said.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "I was devastated, completely devastated," she said.

The Village of Keremeos said it hired a third party contractor to clear the trees along the dike to protect its structural integrity.

“Not always is there very good communication between the contractor and the village and this unfortunately led to having that tree cut down,” said Keremeos mayor Manfred Bauer.

Bauer personally apologized to Woodrow’s family.

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“I would like to send my sincere apologies to Ms. Prince and her family for this oversight,” he said.

Municipal officials and Woodrow’s family are in discussions to put up a plaque in Pine Park to avoid future heartache.

“It’s hard to come here now, because there is nothing left of him here,” Prince said, referring to the former memorial site.