Designs for the planned coal miners’ memorial park in the old triangle parking lot in Hazard, such as the one pictured above, have been submitted. A committee tasked with approving a final design will be continuing work in the coming weeks.
Though plans were underway for the park and memorial well before last week’s disaster in West Virginia that took the lives of 29 miners, Hazard Mayor Bill Gorman said a committee has been formed to decided on the final design. The project could cap a complete facelift for the lower end of downtown that began with a $10.5 million development which included the new bridge next to Home Lumber Company.
“We’re going to build in the center (of the park) a coal miner’s memorial,” Gorman said, adding that the City plans to work with the county’s fiscal court and some local coal companies on the project. He noted that the committee hopes to be able to complete a memorial that is respectful to the hundreds of miners who have lost their lives since coal became the mainstay industry in eastern Kentucky.
“This memorial will last, we hope, 100 years, and we want to be sure it’s done right,” Gorman explained.
Gorman said he believes the City will be able, in working with the Judge Executive Denny Ray Noble and the fiscal court, to utilize tourism funds along with public money to complete the project.
While the final design of the project has not been accepted, the City has received potential designs for the park. But Gorman said the committee will welcome anyone’s idea on the park as it will belong to the community. He did not note a time frame for which the park could be complete.
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