TEXARKANA, Texas -- During a regular meeting Monday, the City Council took its first official look at a proposal to name a new bridge after a police officer who died in the line of duty.
The Council heard a first briefing on naming the Gibson Lane bridge over Wagner Creek after Texarkana, Texas, Police Department Officer Jason Sprague.
Ward 5 Councilmember Bill Harp proposed the idea during the Council's previous meeting, on April 25. The Council will vote on the measure during its next meeting, scheduled for June 13. If it passes, the city will install signs reading "OFFICER JASON SPRAGUE MEMORIAL BRIDGE" at both ends of the bridge.
About 12:30 a.m. June 14, 2013, Sprague, 30, suffered fatal injuries in a hit-and-run crash as he answered a dispatch call involving a large crowd disturbance at Grady T. Wallace Park.
Sprague was trying to make contact with a sports utility vehicle leaving the scene when the SUV's driver accelerated, intentionally struck him and fled. Sprague died in a local hospital the next morning.
Sprague had served with TTPD for two years and had previously served with several law enforcement agencies in Arkansas. Among Sprague's survivors are his wife, Stephanie, and son, Caden, who was 4 years old at the time of Sprague's death.
Police Chief Kevin Schutte told the Council that Sprague's family was for the proposal, especially since Caden is now old enough to understand more about his father's service and death.
Stephanie "thought it would be a great thing to be able to do and was very touched by the gesture," he said.
The new construction presented an opportunity to memorialize Sprague, and the Police Department approached Harp, in whose ward the bridge is being built, "for his blessing," Schutte said.
Schutte said renaming a street after Sprague would have been too complicated, entailing, for example, updating residents' addresses in the 911 emergency response system.
The bridge project, which will connect Gibson's dead ends on either side of Wagner Creek, is funded by a $6 million bond issue the Council approved in 2019.
After a brief closed session, the Council also voted to reappoint Sherry L. Jackson as Municipal Court judge. Jackson will serve another two-year term, ending in 2024, with a salary just under $84,000 per year. In July, she will have served in the position 28 years, according to a city spokesperson.
In other business, the Council held public hearings on and voted to approve a number of permitting and rezoning requests.
The Council approved specific use permits to allow a manufactured home at Findley and McBride streets and a daycare at 3700 N. Robison Road; an amendment to the site plan for a Braum's Ice Cream and Dairy Store to be built at 5605 Richmond Road; and rezoning 1324 Bowie St. to allow a food truck park there.