City preparing to name park at 19th and Haskell ‘Chief Jim McSwain Park’

Posted by Chad Lawhorn December 11, 2012 at 4:28 p.m.

City preparing to name park at 19th and Haskell ‘Chief Jim McSwain Park’

We reported a few weeks ago that the city’s Parks and Recreation Advisory Board had recommended that the unnamed park near the city fire training facility at 19th and Haskell be named Firefighters Remembrance Park, and that it have a plaque recognizing the late Jim McSwain, who served as Lawrence’s fire chief for 27 years.

Well, city commissioners took up the idea last week and tweaked the proposal. They approved a motion to name the park “Chief Jim McSwain Park.” The sign also will include a line that says “Dedicated to all Lawrence firefighters.”

Mayor Bob Schumm suggested the change, and Commissioner Mike Amyx immediately threw his support behind the idea. Both Schumm and Amyx served on the City Commission for many years while McSwain was chief.

I’m told there aren’t any immediate plans for major additions at the park, although city officials are considering the site as a possible location for a community garden.

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cheeseburger 5 months, 1 week ago

I think the Parks and Rec Adv. Board had the right idea, which was later endorsed by the McSwain family, of making it more of a general firefighter's park, with individual remembrances contained within the park. There are fire personnel past, present, and future that will deserve to be recognized, and you can't name a park after each one of them. The general firefighter's park would have allowed for other deserving people to be honored. But of course our illustrious CC can't seem to see the big picture here, or anywhere for that matter.

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