Story Archive

Stringing Along the Public

Jack Purcell Park in Ottawa, Ont., Canada, is named after a retired postal worker who fixed hockey sticks for children who played in the park. In the winter of 1964, he repaired 175 hockey sticks for local children. After he died in 1966, the city named the park and community center in his honor. Last summer the park got C$525,000 (US$488,000) for a “makeover.” An architect made five stylized light poles to honor Purcell. Giant badminton-racket shapes, not hockey sticks. The city turned down plans to string the tops like racquets, which would have added to their $4,595 cost — each. “I think he just Googled ‘Jack Purcell’ and the only thing that comes up is the badminton player,” said Ottawa councillor Diane Holmes. “The Ottawa-hockey-stick-helper-out-of-kids doesn’t come up on Google.” Sure enough, there was a champion badminton player named Jack Purcess who died in 1991, but who had nothing to do with the park. Architect Jerry Corush says the designs aren’t badminton racquets, but rather trees, and he likes it when people puzzle over them. “We just go, ‘Perfect, it’s a piece of art, it’s your own interpretation of what it is’,” he says. (RC/Ottawa Citizen) ...So, the plan was to string the tops of the trees like racquets? It sounds like his excuse is the artistic part.