Carson City sites could be renamed to honor former mayor

The Parks and Recreation Commission met Monday to recommend renaming two Carson City venues in honor of the late Mayor Robert Crowell.

The commission sent a recommendation to rename the Multi-purpose Athletic Center the Robert “Bob” Crowell Multi-purpose Athletic Center and the Sierra Room, where the Board of Supervisors and other committees meet, the Robert “Bob” Crowell Board Room.

“I just want to say how much I support this recommendation. Bob was certainly a man of the city and I know how much his family will be honored,” said Mayor-elect Lori Bagwell, who sits on the commission.

The idea originated with a group of citizens who were close to Crowell.

“Bob often repeated his most important goal was to make Carson City a place where families could grow, prosper and recreate. We believe he certainly accomplished that. So it is fitting that the MAC and the Sierra Board Room at the Community Center be named in his honor as a lasting legacy for a place he so actively supported from concept to reality and the room where he chaired 12 years of supervisor meetings,” read a letter signed by Susan Crowell, Stan Jones, Larry Messina, Mary Pierczynski, Bruce Robertson and Steve Robinson.

The recommendation will likely go to the Board of Supervisors for approval at its Nov. 5 meeting.

The goal is to reopen the Sierra Room, which is now being renovated, as the Robert “Bob” Crowell Board Room.

Crowell was elected mayor in 2008 and served until his death in September. He was born in Tonopah, grew up in Carson City, was a Vietnam veteran and retired U.S. Navy captain. Crowell worked as a lawyer and served 11 years on the Carson City School Board of Trustees before being elected mayor.

The athletic center was built during his tenure as mayor and a trail connecting to the Ash to Kings Trail has already been dedicated as “Bob’s Trail.”