Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Managing Editor
Veterans who are injured in combat are issued a Purple Heart. Nathan McCreery wants them to also have a purple spot.
McCreery, a local photographer, is spearheading the Purple Heart Project — an effort to set up priority parking spots for combat-wounded veterans at public facilities and willing businesses.
“It’s been an astonishment to me,” McCreery said. “People hear me, and they’re chomping at the bit and saying, ‘We want to do this.’”
The spots would be similar to handicapped parking spots, with purple lines instead of blue; signs would designate priority parking for combat-wounded veterans.
“Everybody says, ‘We love our vets, we love our vets, we love our vets,’” McCreery said. “Cool, what are you doing (to help them)? It’s something that can show tangible appreciation for these people and what they have done.”
The biggest difference between the purple parking spots and handicap spots, Clovis City Manager Larry Fry said, is no law exists to punish non-veterans who park in the purple spaces.
“These will not be enforced or monitored,” Fry said. “This will be on the honors system. They will just be painted purple and marked with an appropriate sign. Handicap (access) is a requirement statutorily, while this is being done to honor those people. It’s voluntary to some extent.
“We will have one at city hall and the library, for sure. We’re also talking about doing one at the airport.”
The trend first gained national attention in Warren, Ohio, which created a spot at a municipal court last November and added spots to other city locations over the ensuing months. Nationally, many Wal-Mart and Home Depot locations have special parking for veterans, with different policies on whether the spots are only for combat-injured veterans or open to all veterans. Many stores have similar spots for expectant mothers.
McCreery saw it online, and said it didn’t seem that difficult. He’s since gone to the Clovis/Curry County Chamber of Commerce and the city’s Public Works Committee and found willing participants.
Each spot would cost about $60, McCreery said, with one-third of the expenses for the sign and the rest on the paint — which McCreery notes a local vendor has, “because it is Wildcat purple.”
Public Works Director Clint Bunch said the city is paying for spots on city property. A business that has its parking on a public street could create a spot, Bunch said, but it would have to pay for it and get clearance through the Public Works Committee. Any business or church with its own parking lot, Bunch said, can do whatever it wants with its spots so long as it doesn’t interfere with handicap spots.
McCreery runs his photography business out of his home, but is looking for a store and plans to put a purple spot in his new location.
Fry didn’t have a date for the new spots at the city buildings, and McCreery was optimistic the spots could show up in the first part of May.
“I’m looking forward to it,” McCreery said. “It’s going to be one of those things we won’t have to solicit people to do it. They’ll want to do it.”
Information: McCreery, 575-762-9856.
