Davis Park memorial plan presented to park board

Computer generated image of the proposed veteran's memorial planned for Davis Park. Submitted illustration

Nevada Daily Mail

Plans to turn Davis Park into a military themed park are continuing and during Wednesday's park board meeting Shirley Ann Bastow, who is chair of the Davis Park subcommittee, showed the park board a computer generated rendering of the proposed memorial.

When complete the memorial will have a large U.S. flag and flags from each branch of the military. Current plans also call to put the mural depicting Vernon County involvement with the military in the park as the background for the memorial.

The plan is to sell engraved pavers with the names of Vernon County veterans on them. The mural will need to have some type of covering to prevent damage, Bastow told the board.

"There is some cost, but nothing that cannot be worked into the budget," Dana Redburn, Nevada parks director said.

"We've asked the Richardson Foundation if it can furnish a flagpole," Bastow said.

The next step in the process is to have David Longabardi's class at Nevada Regional Technical Center make a three-dimensional model of the memorial to present to the city council for its approval, Redburn said, adding that may have to wait until school is back in session.

The mural, which was originally installed on the west wall of Ring TV, was damaged several years ago when a windstorm blew it off the wall. It has since been repaired and will need to be reassembled. The mural was painted on individual 4x8 foot pieces of plywood.

This project was originally planned for Earp Park, but the plan to build a new police and fire department put it on hold, and then the Farmers Market located there.

The park board is also considering resurrecting the Adopt-a- Park program that was initially started in 2008 and only lasted for about a year. The idea of the program is for community groups, businesses, or other groups to pick a park or an area in one of the larger parks and then sign a one-year agreement with the city do some work in that park at least once per year, such as picking up litter, painting or planting flowers.

Redburn said there is not much information available on the program, but she has discovered the program was established by the city council with an ordinance. She said there were 12 organizations that had adopted a park. She said her recommendation is to send a letter to each organization to see if it is interested in re-adopting the same park.