Parks Board to Consider Naming Veterans' Park

Tonight the Kent Parks and Recreation Board will consider naming one of the city's forthcoming parks in honor of Kent's veterans.

Wayne Wilson,  liaison to the parks board, will ask the board to consider naming the new park to be built beneath the new Fairchild Avenue Bridge "Veterans' Memorial Park."

The idea came out of council's ad-hoc , which held its first public meeting Wednesday — before council's regular meeting — to hear ideas from the public.

The only person to attend the ad-hoc committee meeting was Nancy Krestan, . spurred the creation of the ad-hoc committee with the intent of exploring ways to honor Kent's fallen veterans and soldiers.

Krestan told the ad-hoc committee her son would have preferred a memorial dedicated to all the city's veterans rather than named specifically after him.

The new park is being built on the western bank of the Cuyahoga River as part of the Fairchild Avenue Bridge construction. The park will serve to extend The Portage Hike and Bike Trail, which currently stops at the east end of the Crain Avenue Bridge, south towards .

The parks board meets tonight at 7 p.m. at the off Middlebury Road.