(6/5) The Town Council voted unanimously to rename Community Park in honor of a former town mayor who helped develop the park.

Upon a motion made by Commissioner Frank Davis, seconded by Commissioner Joseph Ritz, III, the board voted to change the name of the park to honor former Mayor Eugene Myers.

Myers died at age 77 in 2006 and had served as the town mayor from 1974 to 1978, in between the two terms served by Mayor Richard Sprankle (1972-1978 and 1980-1982). He also served as chairman of the town Planning and Zoning Commission, as a parks commissioner, and as president of the Town Council.

The former mayor was also quite active in local sports and recreation. Commissioner Davis noted that when local baseball became popular in the 1970s, the town only had a single field which served for multiple purposes.

He said Myers had a vision of creating a community park, and the former mayor then spent “countless hours of his own time,” mustered the money necessary to bring the project to fruition, and the manpower to create it, “and then basically took an old hay field and began the development of the community park.”

Myers was active in local baseball as well, having coached the Senior Division of the Babe Ruth Baseball League, and owning and managing his own softball team, according to the June 1999 Dispatch newspaper.

Commissioner Sweeney said Myers had also established a clay tennis court, and an ice-skating rink. He said the rink was located next to the dog-walk in the park. “It (the old rink) is grown up now, but you can still see the water. It's full of frogs, but it's still there.”

Among Myers' accomplishments, he served for ten years with Vigilant Hose Company as a fireman and as a chief, and is credited with aiding in the effort to have the National Fire Academy sited on the grounds of the former St. Joseph's Academy.