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MAGNA — The views are amazing, and it certainly is peaceful, but the Pleasant Green Cemetery in Magna just might not be the place for a Susan Powell memorial.
The announcement of a planned statue of the missing West Valley mother and her two sons was made at a West Valley City Council meeting Tuesday. Now, her family and friends are saying they knew nothing about it.
"It was very kind of them to offer, and we are considering that location among many others," Kiirsi Hellewell, Susan Powell's best friend, said Friday.
That's one thing we would like to emphasize, is that absolutely nothing has been decided at this point.
–Kiirsi Hellewell, friend to Susan Powell
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Hellewell said she first heard about the memorial earlier this week. She's been involved in almost every aspect of Susan Powell's story.
"(The announcement) was a bit premature," Hellewell said.
She wants everyone to know nothing has officially been decided. It's a decision Susan Powell's parents and a committee want to make together.
"That's one thing we would like to emphasize, is that absolutely nothing has been decided at this point," Hellewell said.
Hiram Bertoch, president of the Pleasant Green Cemetery, said he only donated the land because he wanted a peaceful place for people to reflect.
#bertoch_pic
"We've all felt a lot of pain and there hasn't been closure for us, for anybody," he said Friday.
Pleasant Green, a private cemetery, is a unique place. It's more of a "pioneer style" place, where rocks, desert vegetation and scrub brush is the norm.
"It's supposed to look like a hillside, and we maintain that," Bertoch said.
If Susan Powell's family decides to not put her memorial at Pleasant Green, Bertoch said he would be OK with that. "If they wanted to do a memorial somewhere else, we wouldn't do something up here," he said.
"Everything is up in the air," Hellewell said. "Location, artist and all the details of the memorial are to be decided at a future point."
Meanwhile, West Valley City Mayor Mike Winder says his announcement came during a work session with the City Council, and that he only made the announcement because Bertoch asked him to. They wanted it to be a positive thing.
