Waco Trib
The “Fallen Heroes Memorial Park,” a vastly scaled-back version from one designed by a Dallas architect three years ago, will sit about 100 yards from where 12 firefighters and paramedics died as they fought the fire at the fertilizer plant. The others who died were residents of an apartment complex and a nursing home.
The memorial, which went from a design costing about $2 million to a less-complex model valued at about $300,000, is set for completion by the end of summer, West Mayor Tommy Muska said.
The memorial will include a circular water feature with an eternal flame in the center. Around that will be 15 individual stations that will showcase plaques to honor each of those who died April 17, 2013, after the explosion that decimated the small northern McLennan County town.
The memorial will be a stone’s throw away from Parker’s Park, which was the first structure on city-owned property to be rebuilt after the tragedy, inspired by the wishes of young Parker Pustejovsky. Parker’s father, Joey, was a city employee and a volunteer firefighter killed that night.
Parker’s grandfather, Joe Pustejovsky, who chairs the memorial committee, said the memorial is important for the community.
“It’s not only for Joey, but for these guys who ran in the face of tragedy. Their only feelings were to protect the community. Of course, nobody thought anything like that was going to happen, but it is important for those people who passed that day that this gets done for the community,” Pustejovsky said.
Pustejovsky said the committee is waiting for some grants to come in to help fund the project, which he said will cost about $200,000. The city also received about $100,000 worth of donations of materials and labor to assist its completion, he said.
West Mayor Pro Tem Steve Vanek and Bryan Nors, an architect in Waco, put on a car show in West known as the “Small Town Showdown” at the end of May and raised $10,000 toward the memorial project. Vanek will present the memorial committee with a check Tuesday evening at the West City Council meeting.
Vanek said the car show next year will benefit the West Volunteer Ambulance Association.
Pustejovsky attended a service in Maryland in 2014 at the National Fallen Firefighters Memorial and one the next year at the Texas Fallen Firefighters Memorial in Austin. His son was honored at both services.
He said once the expense of the original design necessitated that it be scaled back, he contacted architect Kurt Vrbas, a former West resident, to help him plot a new design. He said they incorporated elements from both memorials and one for shooting victims at Fort Hood to shape the West memorial.
“This new design for the memorial is something we can afford and something we will be able to maintain,” Muska said. “It is going to match the community in its simplicity and its desire to remember those who perished that day.”