The George Scott Memorial Park was really “swinging” Monday evening. It was the grand opening of the new city park. Children were seen everywhere swinging on swings, jumping on spring toys and sliding down bright yellow slides. The park is a wonderful addition to our town and everyone was having a good time.

The pledge of Allegiance was said to start the grand celebration off and then a prayer by Pastor Dixon.

Wanda Scott (George Scott’s wife) was asked to cut the big red ribbon. Wanda said, “I am so excited to be here in Italy. It is always a pleasure to see something that will help our children. This is something that George would have been so pleased with because the children of Italy were important to him. I can guarantee you he would have known who every one of these children were if he were here.”

Mark Souder was busy grilling hot dogs and everywhere you looked people were busy enjoying his “dogs”.

Mayor Jackson told everyone to enjoy the food and have lots of fun. The mayor gave special thanks to:

• Tina and Marty Haight – for donating the park equipment.
• Team Depot and Home Depot – for all the hard work of putting it all together.
• The Park Board members -
  • Clover Stiles, Bruce Utley, Janet Campbell, Stephanie Wilson (president), Susan
    Harris, Tina Haight, Jason Escamilla and Pastor Dixon.
• Commissioner Heath Simms of Ellis County – for the donation of the gravel.
• Dennis Janek – for digging all the piers and the use of his equipment.
• Italy ISD and the Public Works Department – for clearing the area and helping with the preparation.
• The Italy Police Department for securing and patrolling the area.

Mayor Jackson also thanked Trinity Mission, Italy IYAA, Lions Club, Subway, Uptown Cafe, Crystal Ashcraft, Citizens National Bank of Italy, First State Bank of Italy, Italy Cleaners, Dollar General, Varners Fina, Mama’s Place, Melissa Souder and the Brummett’s for their donations.

Mayor Jackson said, “This is a great day for Italy. I am just glad to see everyone having a great time. It means a lot to the kids. We are going to put some park benches out here, we are going to try to get a gazebo, someone said they are going to donate another picnic table. We are going to make the basketball court larger so they have more room to play. It is a good start and I thank Tina Haight and Marty Haight because they really did a lot for the city. We couldn’t have done this without Home Depot they did such a great job, they knew all the regulations that needed to be followed. They did a great job, I am so happy.”

Clover Stiles (Park Board member), said, “I just want to thank everyone for coming out, this is truly a great community event and we are so proud to see such a great turn out. We have hope that this is just the beginning of something bigger and better to come. We hope that this will be a continuous process and get some things for the older kids out here. We just wanted a place for people to come with their families and something they can be proud of.”

It was a wonderful evening for all, the sun was shining and the children’s faces were all smiles.