Nixon council holds off on proposed park name change

The Nixon City Council discussed on Monday, June 5, renaming a proposed veterans park to be built on land to the east of City Hall, but voted eventually to hold off on any name change until July so the proper steps can be taken.

Members of the newly created Tourism and Development Board and the council spoke about adding deceased veteran John Longoria’s name to the park, which is currently being called the Freddy Aguirre Memorial Park. However, other members of the public expressed wishes during the meeting that the council give the park a generic name to honor all veterans and not just those who died in service.

Since the council already approved naming it the Freddy Aguirre Memorial Park during a previous meeting, any action to rename the proposed park would require the council first to rescind the name and then take action to vote on a new one, City Attorney Eddie Escobedo said.

“If there was a prior action taken by counsel to name it, that prior action has to be rescinded prior to naming it something else,” Escobedo advised. “I'm just looking at the agenda and trying to do everything right. The rescinding of the prior naming of the park by council action is not on the agenda. So I'm not entirely sure that you know, legally, we can rename it until it is rescinded and we cannot do it based on this agenda.”

Lance Cpl. Freddy Aguirre, whose brother Pablo is on the Tourism and Development Board, was enlisted in the U.S. Marines for less than one year before he and most of his platoon were killed in a 1977 helicopter accident while on maneuvers in the Philippines.

Park design

Presenting a preliminary design for the proposed park, Tourism and Development Board Chairman Travis Hansen said it would face US 87 and include a rock wall sign with the words “Nixon Memorial Park,” behind which would stand three large stones bearing the names of every veteran from Nixon, Smiley, Leesville or Belmont who served in the military — some 750 names in all, according to Mayor Dorothy Riojas.

There would also be a circular area with flagpoles and an inlay of the state of Texas behind the wall while, further down in the park, would be an area set up with a stage for live music as well as seating and restroom facilities. Those upgrades would be built in later phases as funding becomes available, Hansen said.

“With the council’s permission, we'd like to work on this thing in phases, obviously, because we don't have just a whole bunch of money to throw at this thing,” Hansen said. “I think what we're looking at trying to accomplish primarily in our Phase One would be the Nixon Memorial Park signs that you see there, and that would be the wall that you'll have the names inscribed and then that area with the state of Texas and the flags. I know there's a deadline of Veterans Day that we want to try to put something on there, but we can't make everything in that park happen with the timeframe as well as the financing.”

Riojas said the city has already contracted for the three stones bearing the names and is working with a contractor to have the ready in time for Veterans Day at the new park. The city previously set aside $250,000 to pay for creation of the new park.

Council members directed the board to work with Mando Cisneros and have him help advise them regarding any possible structures since Cisneros performs that time of work on a regular basis and would be an asset in making sure best practices are followed.

Name change

Members of the Tourism and Development Board suggested adding the name of U. S. Marine Corps Cpl. John Matthew Longoria, who died at age 21 while serving in New Ubaydi, Iraq. Longoria was a member of the Nixon High School Class of 2003.

A member of the audience, Rancho-Nixon Historical Association President Donald Hoffman, asked that the council consider a generic name instead.

“Could I ask that we leave memorial off the name because that designates only those that died and there’s many of us that served and we’d like to get recognition too?” Hoffman asked.

Council member Patsy Vigil Scherrer said she had heard from several citizens about the proposed park name and also believed a generic name was in order.

“My motion is to have it be just Nixon Veterans Park with no names on it, because we will have arguments in the future about that and it's going to be coming back and forth to us and there's just too many complaints and arguments on it,” Scherrer said.

Councilmember Justin La Fleur asked Pablo Aguirre if he was okay with changing the name since his family had originally been working to get Freddy’s service recognized.

“I'm a citizen of Nixon, and I'll go with what everybody wants,” Pablo Aguirre said. “I don't want our name to be dragged through the mud, like I've seen on Facebook. That happens way too much here and

it just needs to be much more positive where everyone’s pulling together. Our family will do whatever you guys want, but I do not want my name or my brother's name dragged through the mud.”

Tourism Board Vice Chairman Briana Dominguez said she never knew Freddy Aguirre, but did know John Longoria, a classmate, very well. However, as she pointed out, “heaven forbid this happens, but who's to say somebody in the next class doesn't die in combat, so then we will have to revisit that? So I agree, the name Nixon Veterans Park covers across the board.”

Hansen suggested the park could have a separate exhibit dedicated to all 16 people from Nixon who died in service to their country.

“We don't need to name the park after someone solely or two people and then have a bunch of fighting and bickering over ‘Well, how come my cousin didn't get named?’” Hansen said. “Like Mr. Aguirre said, it'll save his family's name, because everybody knows, in this town, as soon as it's named, it’ll all be Mr. Aguirre’s fault and it'll be taken out on him and I definitely don't want that for him.”

Not everyone was satisfied with how the city was handling the veterans’ park situation. Natividad Ruiz, a member of the American Legion and Army veteran, voiced his displeasure with the council that his group had no input into the park’s design or naming.

“We asked to be a part of this at the American Legion and you created a new committee to take charge of this, but you never asked the veterans,” Ruiz said. “No one that I know that are veterans agrees with this. And if that’s going to be the case, I’m going to go online and form a petition to get it overturned because this should be a Nixon Veterans Memorial Park and not specifically for someone who was in service.

“We just asked to be a part of it and that doesn’t even happen. It’s not specific to just one event or just one item.”