Circular park on Pennsylvania may be renamed

Special from the News-Ledger – Oct. 19, 2011

A circular park at the intersection of 17th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue may be renamed, from “Pennsylvania Park” to “”Fred and Leila Holmes Park.” The city parks commission has approved the renaming request from the couple’s daughter, Mary Jane Holmes. The West Sacramento city council will consider the matter tonight.

Mary Jane Holmes is a former West Sacramento resident who now lives in Oakland. She has agreed to pay costs for the new signs at the park, and provided information about her parents to the city to justify the request.

The late Fred Holmes, she said, was a longtime member of the Yolo County Board of Education who was “instrumental” in getting a high school built in West Sacramento in the 1950s. He also wrote a column for the News-Ledger called “The School Corner,” she said. Her father also was active in Yolo County planning commission meetings and helped convince the county to leave the circular park in place when paving and sidewalks came to the neighborhood. It was just a vacant lot at the time, but was later filled in with grass, and Fred Holmes often mowed it, she said. He and his father also helped mow and maintain the circle park on Alabama Avenue. Fred Holmes died in 1973 while hiking in Hawaii.

The city posted notices about the name change and held a hearing before the parks commission considered it. No comments were received, said a city staff report.

Copyright News-Ledger 2011