Parks board OKs renaming community center after Franklin Norman

Following an impassioned request from John Flynn, and receiving a supporting letter from Steve Moyer the Nevada Parks Board voted 5-0 Wednesday evening to rename the Nevada-Vernon County Community Center the Franklin P. Norman Community Center when it reopens late this fall.

Norman died in December 2005, and is remembered as a staunch supporter of quality-of-life improvements in and around the city.

"Few people in the history of Nevada have had a greater impact on so many aspects of our daily life than Franklin Norman. Franklin was one of the first people to get behind the idea of a new Community Center three years before the sales tax vote. He became the proposed center's most vocal and tireless supporter. As with his early promotion of the YMCA, he felt that the quality of life in his beloved Nevada was suffering and a new center had to be built.

"While his vision of the center was grander in scope than our financial reality permits, he would be pleased with the innovative ideas being used to bring our new center to fruition.

"The community center was his last major undertaking. In his final days he would summon community leaders to his bedside for final instructions on how the center project should be done. Were he with us today he would be standing before you asking that the center be named 'The Dewitt C. Hunter Community Center.' While that is a fine idea, 'The Franklin P. Norman Community Center' is a better one."

Flynn went on to tell the board that Norman was a lifelong resident and civic leader; had served on the NRMC board; the Vernon County Historical Society board; vice chairman of the committee to form our council/manager form of government in 1946; chairman of the civic committee to retain the council/manager form of government when a group of people tried to do away it; director and treasurer of the Community Chest; board member of the Girls Scouts and the commander and active member of the American Legion.

Norman was also the vice chairman of the commission that oversaw the writing of the city charter in 1979; the prime mover in the construction of the elevator in the Vernon County Courthouse; key player in convincing the state to refurbish the William Joel Stone Memorial and was twice selected the citizen of the year. First in 1952 by the American Legion and in 2004 as the Chamber of Commerce Champion.

Norman was also one of the proud founders of the 9 a.m. Coffee Club following the end or World War II.

Flynn told the board that Norman had pre-arranged his funeral and did not want a bunch of people talking about him. When he asked Norman if there was anything that he wanted him to tell the Nevada residents, Norman responded:

"Tell them that I love them and goodbye."

Steve Moyer told the board that "Franklin was always trying to make Nevada a better place."

"He had only the best interest of the community at heart," Moyer said.

Parks board member Gina Cripps said that although she had never met Norman, she had heard about him and that "this would be a small but wonderful tribute. My desire is that we do this."

Jeff Post, the newly elected parks board chairman, told the board that he had served on one committee with Norman and that he thought that Norman was a "wonderful man."

"I think its' a great idea," Post said.

In other business concerning the community center renovation, the parks board voted unanimously to not install a commercial grade dishwasher in the kitchen due to the expense of the equipment and the installation costs. Nevertheless, they did recommend that space be included in the kitchen, so a dishwasher could be installed in the future if some organization raised enough money to cover the equipment and installation costs.

The board also voted 5-0 to spend about $7,500 above the cost of repairing the floor in the existing gymnasium, to have a new floor installed that would be suitable for roller skating.

Nevada City Manager Harlan Moore told the board that he would do his best to get them the floor that they want for the gym.

Moore also told the board that Crossland will be installing a new metal skin on the current facility that will match the new addition and blend in with the Neal Center and the Nevada Public Library.