Stewardess Sara Low of Batesville loved animals, and her parents were keeping her cat, Delilah, when Sara became a hero on Sept. 11, 2001.
“We are animal lovers,” said her father, Mike Low.
Low said that’s why the family gave its blessing to the Sara Low Memorial Dog Park planned for the city.
The off-leash dog park will be built adjacent to Riverside Park, and the goal is to open the park by October, said Jeff Owens, director of Batesville Parks and Recreation. He said the cost is estimated at $100,000 and will be raised through donations.
Mike Low, a pilot, said his 28-year-old daughter grew up flying with him and loved it. She was killed when the American Airlines Flight 11 she was working on crashed into the first World Trade Center Tower to be hit during the terrorist attacks in 2001.
Low said he and his wife, Bobbie, take their pets, Rocky and Rascal, to a dog park in lower Manhattan when they walk to the 9/11 memorial.
“It’s good therapy,” he said.
Batesville pharmacist Steve Bryant is a pilot, a dog lover and a longtime friend of the Low family. Bryant said he approached Mayor Rick Elumbaugh about creating a dog park.
“I talked to the mayor a couple of years ago when he was up to his neck in the aquatic-center project,” Bryant said. “He said, ‘That’ll be our next project.’”
Bryant said he and his wife, Sharon, have three “pure-blooded mutts.” They’ve been to dog parks in other cities, and it’s time for Batesville to have one, he said.
“Having a dog park helps define your community as a people-friendly, pet-friendly-type environment and a good place to live, in my opinion,” Bryant said.
“The thing a couple of years ago that got me on this is, … our dogs … would just be wild when they knew we were going to a dog park. They love seeing the other dogs; they love running free in the enclosure,” Bryant said. “My perception of the different places where we went was formed by the fact that these cities had dog parks.”
Elumbaugh said he and his wife also enjoy taking their pets to dog parks when they travel, and it’s been on his list of city projects for a while.
“I think this is a quality of life, and that’s one thing we want to do. We have so many folks in condos and apartments, and this will give them an opportunity to be pet owners and get out,” he said.
Bryant said his older daughter, Monica, was a high school cheerleader with Sara. He recalled how when Sara visited Batesville, she’d sometimes come through the pharmacy drive-through with her mother and sister.
“She just loved her job,” Bryant said. “She loved what she was doing. I can see her sitting at her window saying, ‘I’m loving every minute of it.’ She was really happy.”
He asked the mayor’s permission to approach the Low family about using Sara’s name on the park.
“It was just something I thought would be a good way to honor Sara,” Bryant said. “It just seemed like maybe something that could be done as a lasting tribute in her name that the family could feel real good about without it being commercialized or whatever.”
He said the Low family agreed, “so we’re trying to do this in the spirit of how the Low family would want it done.”
Owens said the ball was already rolling on a dog park because Girl Scout Stephannie Laslo, 14, of Troop 3157 in Batesville has been working on plans for a dog park for about a year for her Gold Award project. The Gold Award is the highest award in Girl Scouts.
“I was volunteering at our local Humane Society in Independence County,” Stephannie said. One day she was asked to let the dogs out in the pens, and she said the dogs were excitedly jumping on the fence wanting to get out.
The idea came to her for a dog park, “so they can socialize, play and run more than they usually would,” she said.
The teenager received approval for her dog-park proposal from the mayor, the Batesville City Council and the Parks and Recreation Department. The area she first proposed was deemed inadequate because it is prone to flooding, she said, so the location was moved to nearby Riverside Park.
Elumbaugh said that because the site is near Riverside Park and the Batesville Municipal Golf Course, there will be adequate parking and restroom facilities.
Stephannie has researched guidelines and rules from dog parks in other cities to apply to this park.
“I have at least 80 hours’ work put into it,” Stephannie said, adding that she’ll rack up many more hours before the dog park opens. “I’m glad that I could help out, and I feel really honored to be able to do something in my community.”
Elumbaugh said about 30 people attended the first public dog-park meeting a few weeks ago, and an architectural rendering was created.
Owens said the preliminary design for the park includes divided areas for small and large dogs, a 40-by-40-foot pavilion and four more shade structures for people, as well as water fountains for canines and their owners.
Other amenities will depend on how much money is raised, he said.
Owens said a memorial to Sara will be in the pavilion, although the design hasn’t been finalized.
“It’s going to be nice,” he said. “We may try to do some type of deal where you can do a donation and memorialize your pets as well.”
Bryant envisions a plaque that tells about Sara’s life.
“People will come in our community who don’t know who she is,” he said.
Stephannie wasn’t alive when 9/11 occurred, but she goes to Batesville High School, where Sara went, “so we’ve learned quite a bit about her,” Stephannie said. Every year on the anniversary of the terrorist attacks, the students discuss the event.
“Everybody’s talking about Sara Low and how brave she was. It’s great; I’m glad she’s still recognized,” Stephannie said.
The next public meeting about the dog park will be at 5:30 p.m. June 21 at the Batesville Community Center.
“We’ve taken the input, and we’re kind of like, ‘Here it is. Here’s what we’re planning to do. Does anybody have any suggestions of how we can improve on this plan?’ Then we’re going to move forward,” Bryant said.
Bryant, who is leading the fundraising, said he already has commitments for about half the cost of the project.
In addition to having naming rights, Mike Low said, the family will likely make a financial donation to the park.
“We are big fans of our local mayor and the park staff, as they do some incredible things,” he wrote in an email.
Low said that in addition to the World Trade Center Memorial in New York City, there are memorials to Sara throughout the country.
“We have been careful with requests to use Sara’s name,” Low said.
He said his family approved the placement of memorials in Boston, Dallas, “even the high plains of Kansas” and at several sites in Arkansas.
The University of Arkansas at Fayetteville placed a small plaque and tree near Sara’s name on the campus sidewalk of graduates near Old Main, Batesville High School has a memorial tree, and the junior high has on display a stone with images that a New Mexico sculptor created.
“We have turned down several requests to use her name that, although well-intended, did not seem appropriate to Sara’s legacy,” he said.
The dog park seemed like a good fit, though.
“We have not made the statement that this would be the last naming, but it could be, as time dims the memory of 9/11 and those many heroes lost,” Low wrote.
But Sara’s memory will live on in Batesville, if the residents can help it.
Senior writer Tammy Keith can be reached at (501) 327-0370 or tkeith@arkansasonline.com.