With the project to update the All-America or Y-Bridge and add a fence complete, city officials are struggling with whether a memorial is needed to honor those who jumped to their deaths from the span.They plan to consult with family members of those who died to see if a gesture, such as a plaque or a garden, would be welcomed.“We want to do something that’s respectful and appropriate with the families’ input,” Akron Deputy Mayor Dave Lie­berth said.Lieberth said one question needing an answer is whether names should be used.Carolyn Conley, whose son Kevin jumped off the bridge in 2006 and who has led a rallying cry for a fence, favors a memorial. She and her husband, Bob, suggest a plaque with a message like, “In memory of those who have lost their lives and in celebration of lives saved.”Conley, who has tracked deaths from the bridge, even attending the funeral of the most recent jumper, thinks names should be excluded.“I don’t know that putting the names of those who died would be important,” said Conley, who just finished the book Temporary Moments: The Story of Kevin Conley, which is available on Barnes & Noble’s website. “It is a bad part of Akron’s history. [The jumpers] were in such pain when they felt they had to end their lives.”Suicide prevention experts caution against memorials in the place where suicides have happened. The Suicide Prevention Resource Center said such a move can spur other suicides in the same place, often by youth. The center suggests alternatives, like holding a mental health awareness day, buying books on mental health for a local library, making a memory quilt or establishing a memorial fund.“We want to be careful to memorialize the people who died rather than the means by which they died,” Andrea Denton, co-facilitator of the Summit County Suicide Prevention Coalition, said in a recent email to city officials on the issue of memorials.Thirty-four people have jumped to their deaths from the Y-Bridge, which some have dubbed the “Suicide Bridge,” since 1997 when the Summit County Medical Examiner’s Office began computerizing its records.Since the month when the Y-Bridge project started — March 2010 — four people jumped off the bridge. Here’s information about each of them, compiled by the Akron Police Department’s detective bureau, which is tasked with investigating suicides. (Names aren’t being used to protect the families.)• 30-year-old Akron woman.Date of death: March 8, 2010.Details: Two men saw her on the side of the railing before she jumped. “I’m sorry,” she said before she let go. Her father told Akron police he didn’t know why she jumped. Police weren’t able to find out much about what was going on in her life.• 39-year-old Howland man.Date of death: Sept. 20, 2010.Details: An Akron police officer saw the man standing on the edge of the bridge. The officer took two steps toward him, then the man put his phone in his pocket and leaped. The man had gotten into an argument with his wife earlier. She called the police and had him thrown out of the house.“He drove straight there and went over,” Akron police Lt. Dave Whiddon said. “He obviously knew where he was going.”• 20-year-old Bloomfield, Mich., man.Date of death: Jan. 4, 2011.Details: His body was discovered under the bridge without any identification. Police found a car key in his pocket and tracked down his vehicle. They discovered a university identification card in his car, as well as a printout of a Web search for the Y-Bridge.“He did the research to come here and do it,” Whiddon said.• 19-year-old Akron man.Date of death: April 11, 2011.Details: He drove his car onto the bridge, stopped, got out and jumped. A family driving behind him braked, initially thinking he had car trouble. A few of the workers involved in the project to add a fence to the bridge — still under way at the time — saw him jump.Stephanie Warsmith can be reached at 330-996-3705 or swarsmith@thebeaconjournal.com.