Carpenter persuaded to replace 13 markers

By Dina Bunn
Denver Rocky Mountain News Staff Writer

Greg Zanis is headed back to Colorado -- but with only 13 crosses this time.

Zanis is the Illinois carpenter who erected 15 crosses in Clement Park to honor the Columbine High School dead, 12 students, one teacher and the two teen-aged gunmen who killed them.

He took them all down earlier this week after the father of a slain Columbine student chopped down the two crosses bearing the names of his son's killers.

Zanis said he never expected to become the focal point of an impassioned debate about forgiveness and faith.

"I cry all the time," he said Tuesday.

He took the crosses down because he felt they were upsetting people, Zanis said.

But when he returned home, his phone didn't stop ringing. He received more than 350 phone calls asking him to bring the crosses back. Some calls came from parents of the victims.

So he built 13 more crosses with black metal caps for the ends. He expects to be back at Clement Park about 8 a.m. this morning to erect the crosses.

But he won't put up crosses for Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, the gunmen.

"I have no hard feelings against that dad for taking the crosses down," Zanis said. "It's hard for him. I hope he doesn't hold it against me. It was stupid on my part. I was just trying to do the right thing."

The Foothills Park and Recreation District, which controls Clement Park, won't let Zanis install the crosses on top of the hill, said executive director Bob Easton.

He'll be asked to place them near the makeshift memorial at the corner of Bowles Avenue and Pierce Street.

"We're starting to reclaim some areas of the park," Easton said. "The location of the hill is certainly prominent, but it's become dangerous with the (wet) weather."

Meanwhile, a landowner near Roxborough State park has offered to let Zanis erect the crosses on his property about five miles south of the Clement Park.

Ron Aigner, who owns a half-acre just east of Roxborough, said he is willing to donate the land for a permanent memorial.

"It's a place of solitude," Aigner said. "It's a good place."