TIFTON — When the Tifton war memorial outside of the Tift County Courthouse was damaged during maintenance, local company Eaton Memorials was called in to fix it.

The memorial, which remembers people who fought in Vietnam, Korea and both World Wars, was being moved to repair the gas line that runs up through it and keeps the “eternal flame” honoring veterans at the pinnacle of the monument lit.

However, an attempt at repairs inadvertently damaged the base of the monument, leading to the city reaching out to Eaton Memorials to repair the damage.

“We do a lot of work around here,” Emmett Eaton, co-owner of Eaton Memorials, said. “We own the cemetery, Tifton Memorial Gardens, we have Eaton Memorials in Tifton and Nashville; everybody knows we do good work, so (the City of Tifton) got a hold of us.”

In the span of a couple of days, Eaton and his company hauled the monument away to repair it, then brought it back, the base fully restored. In addition, the company applied a bit of sandblasting to it, removing the wear and age that had accumulated through the years and restoring the monument to almost pristine condition.