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Benson City Council to adopt naming policy

With a request before it to name the Northside Recreation Area baseball field after 1964 Benson High School graduate Johnny Goggin, the city council will have its planning commission review a proposed facilities naming  policy.
Goggin was a baseball enthusiast who played and coached kids from the area. When the old Benson baseball park was in decline in the late 1960s Goggin led the effort to build a new field. The old field was where the Nevada Square apartments sit today.
He secured a piece of land that is now the Northside Rec Area, then coordinated the volunteer effort that saw to the building of a new field, including an extensive sodding project, Benson resident Ron Hanson told the council at its meeting Monday night.
Goggin was an inspiration to many of the young baseball players in the community who he corralled to work on creating the new field, he said. For his contributions to youth baseball and to the creation of the Northside Rec Area, Hanson said he has the support of many former baseball players in requesting the field be named “Johnny Goggin Field.”
Council members agreed it sounded as if Goggin was worthy of recognition, but in order to establish a consistent policy for naming facilities they agreed the city’s park board review a proposed naming policy. After that review, it will make a recommendation of the policy to the council. Once the policy is adopted, then the council will decide on the request to name the baseball field.
“The City of Benson is committed to providing a fair, consistent and efficient process while respecting the important need for a public consultation and legislative approvals with respect to naming, renaming, or dedication of municipal assets such as streets, parks, and facilities, as well as major elements of such municipal assets,” the proposed policy statement says....
 
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