The families of the late Frank Lotan MacBurney and his brother-in-law Carl Rosk and wife Norma, are happy to see a water fountain installed at Scout Island in their memories is being well used.
“They always felt Williams Lake had been good to them,” Frank’s wife Pauline said of her husband, brother Carl and his wife Norma, while sitting at Scout Island with her daughter Charlene, grandson Dean Demers and Carl and Norma's daughter-in-law Gette.
When Frank died his family didn’t have a service or anything for him and then when Carl died two weeks later, some of the family members started wondering if there was something they could do. Norma died in 2010.
“We were in Victoria when the idea of the fountain came up,” Pauline said.
Pauline and Frank lived on South Lakeside almost directly across the lake from the where the fountain is positioned and today their daughter, Charlene MacBurney, still lives there.
“It’s nice because Scout Island is a busy place and the fountain overlooks the house where dad lived,” Charlene said.
For many years Frank ran a truck and farm equipment store — MacBurney Equipment.
Later he had a jewellery store.
He served as an alderman, managed the Stampeders hockey club, was a founding member of the Chamber of Commerce and served on the hospital board.
Carl started his own business Rosk Powersaws in 1964 when he moved to Williams Lake.
“He would go out logging early in the day and then be back by 8 a.m. to run his shop,” said Gette.
Frank had a dog named Peanut so the family also felt it was fitting to include a lower water spout on the fountain for dogs and a little plaque in the shape of a dog with Peanut’s name on it.
“We are thankful to [former] Mayor Kerry Cook and the city’s water crew who really helped us with the project,” Pauline said.