City of Amarillo announces agreement for downtown first responders memorial

Editor's note: In the original version of this story, Wendi Swope, the founder of the first responders memorial project, was misidentified. The story has been corrected below. The Globe-News regrets the error.

On Tuesday, by a unanimous 5-0 vote, the Amarillo City Council approved a $1-a-year lease in downtown Amarillo for a first responders memorial honoring those who lost their lives in the line of duty in the 26 counties of the Texas Panhandle.

First responders representing multiple areas of the Texas Panhandle region were on hand at the meeting, filling the chamber as the city council heard the presentation from Wendi Swope, the founder of the project.

An Amarillo citizens group, Friends of AJ Swope, plans to build the standalone memorial at the northwest corner of 11th Avenue and Polk Street as a green space reimagined with a wall bearing the names of fallen first responders from the Panhandle region. The project will feature a central water feature and lighting for residents to have quiet reflection.

The group made its appeal to the council to use the location that has been a small city park since 1970 to use for the Texas Panhandle First Responders Memorial.

Gary Pitner, a member of the Friends of AJ Swope, spoke about how the project evolved from its original idea of having it be a part of the group's proposed AJ Swope Plaza and Texas Panhandle Hall of Fame in a news release. The estimated cost of the project will be $1.2 million, and the group is still raising donations for the project at its website freindsofajswope.org.

“Separating the memorial from the rest of the project has allowed us to expand the concept from a simple marker into a beautiful downtown greenspace that will provide a quiet setting to reflect on the ultimate sacrifices these men and women made in service to their friends and neighbors,” Pitner said.

More:Here's a preliminary list of honorees for the new First Responders Memorial

Wes Reeves, a chairperson for the organization, said that the Texas Panhandle Hall of Fame is still in the works, but in the end, it made more sense to make it a separate project dedicated to first responders.

“We have had some really great partners in the law enforcement community to help us in their support for this project,” Reeves said. “It is really exciting to move forward on this project that we have been trying to make happen since 2018. I believe what we have come up with is a better idea as a standalone project that makes the first responder memorial bigger and better. This is a beautiful location for this memorial, and we are glad the city is working with us to make this happen.”

Amarillo City Councilmember Eddy Sauer commended Swope’s organization for their effort in making the memorial an actual project.

“I want to commend you guys for keeping the idea going forward and not giving up; this is such a worthy cause,” Sauer added.

Swope spoke about her organization’s idea behind the memorial project and the development plan that will honor 87 first responders from the region who gave their lives for the community, with the capability to add names to the monument. She said that she hopes enough funds will be raised to start the project next year.

“Even though our community supports first responders, there is not a region-wide memorial to honor those that lost their lives in the line of duty,” Swope said. “We wanted to make sure that the names of these heroes were front and center, and by adding a water feature, that would cascade the names of the fallen in a serene setting.”

Swope said her personal experience that started with first responders during her time as a reporter significantly impacted her passion for honoring first responders. She said that she was so impressed by how the first responders dealt with the passing of her husband about a decade ago that it made a permanent imprint on her wanting to do more for those who serve the community.

“There is a long history of myself with first responders that gives me a passion for helping them; my agency does whatever it can to help first responder agencies,” Swope said.

Swope said that her organization had taken input from many of the families who have lost loved ones in the line of duty and said that their cooperation has been instrumental in making this project a reality. They have worked with the organization so that they can get pictures and to tell the stories of these brave first responders.

This article originally appeared on Amarillo Globe-News: City of Amarillo announces agreement for first responders memorial