From left, Saranac Lake Department of Public Works employees BJ Tanzini, Tanner Manning and Nathan Hough install one of the new basketball hoops at Ampersand Park on Friday, May 13. A local resident has asked the village board to consider renaming the park after his grandfather, Ken Garwood, who convinced the village to purchase the park years ago as a village trustee. (Enterprise photo — Lindsay Munn)

SARANAC LAKE — As the village finishes installing new crowdfunded basketball hoops at Ampersand Park, the man who pushed for the upgrade to the courts is asking the village to consider renaming the park after his grandfather, the village trustee who, in 1968, convinced the village to purchase the land and turn it into a public park.

The park has always been near and dear to Justin Garwood. He grew up around the corner and balled there with Paul Smith’s College and North County Community College students. Back then, his family always called it “Garwood Park.”

That’s because his grandfather, Ken Garwood, was a village trustee in the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s. They said Ken had convinced the village to purchase the land and turn it into a public park. Justin had always considered this a family tale until recently, when he decided to do his “homework” and speak with two of the foremost experts on village history in town — village Clerk Kareen Tyler and town councilman and former Enterprise reporter and editor Howard Riley.

Riley had covered the sale for the Enterprise in the 1960s.

“Howard Riley knows everything,” Justin said.

Justin said employees at the village office then dug through old village board minutes and found documentation of the sale and Ken’s push for it, confirming his family story.

In the mid-1900s, the land on the corner of Broadway and Ampersand Avenue was a private greenhouse space that had fallen into disrepair, and residents were complaining about the eyesore.

Legal documents from the sale at the time refer to the land as “Boyer-Garwood Park” but Tyler said the park was never officially branded with the Garwood name.

When the park was redeveloped, it was named “Ampersand Park” because it was on Ampersand Avenue. Ken was around at the time, but he wasn’t the type to make a stink about it, Justin said.

Justin said his grandfather served his country as well as his village, fighting in World War II.

“He was sitting in his house on Margaret Street when Pearl Harbor occurred and the next day joined the Army Air Corps,” Justin said.

On his first mission in a B-17 bomber, he was shot down in the English Channel and was rescued from the waters, according to a column Riley wrote in the Enterprise in 2007. On his 15th mission, he was shot down again and became a prisoner of war in Germany for 18 months.

“Sgt. Garwood was one of 9,500 prisoners who were part of the German forced march,” Riley wrote. “They marched night and day for three months, Garwood said, eating bread and potatoes, sleeping in barns, while once in a while getting food at a farm house.”

Ken was eventually able to escape the prison camp he was in with some fellow POWs, Justin said, by stealing a vehicle and driving it to Allied lines.

“His story was pretty heroic,” Justin said.

Ken came back, was awarded the Bronze Star and started a family. He died in 2009 at the age of 87.

“My grandfather was not somebody who ever wanted the spotlight, but this is one way for me to honor him,” Justin said. “Lest there be any assumption that I’m trying to make this park about myself, that is not what I want.”

He said he’s not looking to name it “Garwood Park” and suggested “Ken Garwood POW Memorial Park” instead.

Mayor Jimmy Williams said he is “100% supportive” of changing the name. He thought that with the park right across the street from the Veterans Club, it would be fitting to honor POWs there.

Board members agreed to hold a public comment session on renaming the park at its next regular board meeting on May 23 to see if the Ampersand name holds any community value beyond being the street name, and then plan to take a vote on the name change.

Around a year ago, Justin had asked the village for help fixing up the courts at the park. The concrete was cracking and the poles holding the hoops were bending.

He knew he couldn’t ask the village to pay for the hoops themselves, so he started a crowdfunding campaign through the Saranac Lake Local Development Corporation. They raised $5,000 with donations from all sorts of people.

His request was for the village to install new hoops. The village Department of Public Works removed the old hoops on Monday and installed new ones on Friday.

Justin said he’s heard people are already looking to schedule basketball tournaments at the updated park.