City to turn south Wichita park into the Kansas Firefighters Memorial

WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) — A proposal to convert Lincoln Park on South Broadway into a Kansas Firefighters Memorial was revealed during the Kansas Firefighters Service on Sunday. The Kansas Firefighter Museum Board has been considering the idea for years, only seriously considering it in the last few months.

The museum, which is at Lincoln Park, was the first fire station built in Wichita and is now the official Kansas Firefighters Museum. The project could mean big changes for the museum and the park. It’s a longtime dream of Kansas Firefighter Museum Board President Tod Newlin.

“[We’re] kind of in the infancy stage, but this is as far as we’ve gotten in a long, long time,” Newlin said. “It’s always been an unofficial state memorial, but we want to make it an official state memorial.”

The change would make the entire park firefighter-themed; it would replace the current equipment, add a fire-themed splash pad and expand the museum.

“We have so much stuff in storage, so it’s just hard to display every piece of firefighting history,” Newlin said.

If the park is designated the official Kansas Firefighters Memorial, it will open it to state funding. The city is also considering a multi-year fundraising initiative through the Wichita Parks Foundation as well as pulling in outside sources.

“We think it’s important to be a part of the city, to be a part of the community to help revitalize the area down here, especially,” Newlin said.

Wichita City Council member Mike Hoheisel says that the park needs attention.

“There are some issues there from time to time, but the best way to stop a lot of the blight and a lot of the issues we have is to activate the space,” he said.

Regardless of whether the park achieves the status of a state memorial, the city plans to follow through on the firefighter-themed park improvements. Wichita City Council members are working with state connections to draft legislation to officially redesignate the park.

“It can be a nice gathering spot for not only friends and family of firefighters but for the community as well,” Hoheisel said.

The city couldn’t give an estimate on the project’s cost, saying everything is preliminary at this point. They hope to achieve state memorial status by this time next year.

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