In 2023, Lewis County commissioners passed a resolution to rename the viewpoint over Riffe Lake “Gary Stamper Memorial.”
As residents should know or remember, Gary Stamper died in 2021 from COVID-19. In keeping it real, I think the current commissioners should rename the viewpoint to “The Gary Stamper COVID-19 Memorial” to pay homage to all who died from COVID-19 — both within and outside of Lewis County.
In 2020 alone, the final official tally of COVID-19 deaths in which the virus was the underlying cause of death in the U.S. was 350,831. That number increased in 2021 (about three-quarters of a million people died over those two years due to COVID-19).
It may have seemed like a dream or was treated like a political ball, but it happened. They were real; the deaths were actual, and don’t we need to keep it real now?
Helen Nowlin
Glenoma
