Springdale veterans park project hopes to raise $5.8 million, City Council told

A dog walks along the trial at J.B. Hunt Park Sunday, March 3, 2013, in Springdale. (NWA Democrat-Gazette FILE PHOTO/ANDY SHUPE)
A dog walks along the trial at J.B. Hunt Park Sunday, March 3, 2013, in Springdale. (NWA Democrat-Gazette FILE PHOTO/ANDY SHUPE)

SPRINGDALE -- Fundraising for a $5.8 million park to honor veterans has begun, the nonprofit Springdale Veterans Organization informed the City Council on Tuesday.

The project would convert 5 acres at the east end of J.B. Hunt Park into a landscaped area with a variety of trees, trails, flags of the service branches and memorials designed to inspire and encourage visitors to stay and make return visits rather than present only a static tribute. The group plans to raise the amount privately, including donations of labor and material, the council was told.

Judges in the competition for designs credited creator Conor O'Shea of Hinterlands Urbanism and Landscape of Chicago for creating a tasteful, dignified plan, and yet realistic to finance and maintain, group spokesman and treasurer Jeffery Vinger told the council. He also thanked contributors including the Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design at the University of Arkansas, which constructed a model of the project shown to the council and assisted the group throughout the project.

The plans including concept images of the project are available at the group's website, svmo72762.org .

In other business, the council unanimously voted to bring a fifth ambulance into service. There was no debate Tuesday. The council's committee of the whole had agreed on the addition in a meeting a week before.

The city's ambulance service had no ambulance immediately available 108 times between Jan. 1, 2020, to April 30, 2021, according to Fire Chief Mike Irwin. Ambulances called in from other nearby departments answered 14 of those calls but the rest were treated by firefighters until ambulances were free. All Springdale firefighters are trained as emergency medical technicians.

The city already has an ambulance available. It has two reserve ambulances for use when one of the regular vehicles is being maintained or repaired, according to Irwin. So the new crew will not require a new vehicle, council members were told at the committee meeting.

A new crew should be hired by Aug. 1 but will require training, according to Irwin. The new ambulance should be in operation by the end of the year. The crew is expected to cost the city $359,000 a year, he said.

Irwin also delayed his request for three battalion commander positions for the Fire Department, whose ranks have grown without an expansion of supervisors. He requested the council delay his earlier request until the city's regular budget process at the end of the year.

Upcoming Events