[responsive-slider id=169]

After a concerned reader contacted The Beacon, DeLand city officials dusted off a plaque commemorating Elmer L. Michael, a DeLand police officer killed in the line of duty in 1942, and reinstalled it in Downtown DeLand.

The monument, at Wisconsin Avenue and Woodland Boulevard, had been moved during construction of the Courtyard by Marriott hotel, but an 18-month delay between the projected end of construction and the actual end of construction almost doomed the plaque to misty memory.

“We forgot about it,” Public Works Director Demetris Pressley said. “It’s such a unique thing. It wasn’t on our list of daily tasks.”

The plaque has been returned to its original home on Wisconsin.

It reads, “In memory of Elmer ‘Mike’ Michael. Outstanding service in the line of duty for the City of DeLand. DeLand Patrolman 1926-1942.”