by WES FERGUSON
The Buda City Council on Tuesday unanimously approved a resolution naming the Buda Skate Park for a local teenager who died in June.
Before a standing-room-only crowd in the council chambers, Mayor Pro Tem Sandra Tenorio choked back tears as she read a proclamation naming the skatepark for 15-year-old Jackson Tyler Norris, an avid skateboarder.
Jackson, who would have been a sophomore at Hays High School this fall, was struck and killed by a pickup on June 21 while attempting to cross a busy highway in Lockhart.
Jackson was remembered for his Christian faith, his kindness to younger children and respect for elders. When he fell off his skateboard, friends and neighbors recalled, he got up, smiled, and dusted himself off.
“He would stop and talk to the little kids,” said Mayor Sarah Mangham, who was one of Jackson’s neighbors in the Cullen Country subdivision. “He would say ‘yes, ma’am’ and ‘no, ma’am,’ and he was a perfect example of what I would like my son to grow up to be like.”
Jackson was an organ, blood and tissue donor, saving countless lives, according to the proclamation read by Tenorio. More than 70 people signed a petition in support of naming the skatepark the Jackson Norris Memorial Park.
The skatepark will occupy a one-acre lot south of Main Street, in the industrial area under the water tower near the intersection of Goforth Road and South RM 967.
Park planning has begun this summer, said Buda Parks Director Jack Jones, with a final opening tentatively slated for spring of 2012. The fenced-in, 10,000-square-foot concrete plaza will have jumps, ramps and rails for skateboarders to practice their tricks.
