The background
Council member Glenna Pearce on Jan. 16 briefed council colleagues about an initiative to develop a visible, public spot for a formal Hollywood Park VFD memorial.
Pearce said she has been informally talking with a small handful of residents about the best location and potential design for a memorial, which would recognize individuals who were part of the town's past volunteer fire department.
A plaque honoring the former Hollywood Park VFD is located inside the fire station next to City Hall, but Pearce has proposed providing a more prominent site for such a tribute, possibly at Memorial Park.
Digging deeper
To date, Pearce said, the group of residents have helped to come up with different scenarios for a VFD memorial.
According to Peace, ideas for a memorial include relocating the fire station plaque to a part of Memorial Park, where it would be accompanied by a bench placed upon a brick platform on the ground. The bench and brick platform would feature names of past VFD members.
“Anyone who’s ever been a volunteer [firefighter] in our town, we’d love to have their name engraved here,” Pearce said.
The park memorial could also include a displayed patch bearing the VFD’s old emblem, and a photo of a VFD truck from the 1960s.
Pearce said she and the residents helping to come up with VFD memorial ideas hope a local company would carry out such a project, if approved by council. The group is also soliciting preliminary cost estimates, which range $3,000 to $4,300, Pearce said.
Other council members applauded Pearce’s leadership, and said they hope the VFD memorial becomes a reality at Memorial Park, which they added is a more suitable, prominent spot for such a tribute than inside the fire station.
“I think utilizing an underutilized park provides a tremendous opportunity here,” Mayor Sean Moore said of the triangular pocket park.
