Parks need payphones

A regular feature that has been missing for a few weeks has reappeared in this edition of the Weekend Gazette.

The Pat on the Back is a way to recognize, in a small way, those who have gone out of their way to help others.

(By the way, many of the letters include a $5 check to be sent to the charity of the nominator's choice. That isn't necessary -- the Gazette provides the $5!)

But some anonymous person deserves far more than a Pat on the Back following last weekend's emergency in Barnett Park.

A young boy, concentrating on having fun, instead found himself in a life-and-death struggle when he fell through the ice.

Thanks to his quick-thinking brother and friends, who flagged down a motorist with a cellular telephone, the boy was pulled from eight feet of frigid water just before the point in time where he might have become too cold to help himself.

The boy also owes his life to the quick response and ingenuity of firefighter/paramedics who used an inflated fire hose as a makeshift rescue hose.

As it was, the boy was in the water 20 to 25 minutes -- far too long when hypothermia is a threat.

"We'd really like to thank the folks who called," the boy's father said. "That phone call made all the difference."

But what if the passerby hadn't happened along? What if he would have refused to stop? What if he would not have had a cellular telephone?

City parks, especially Barnett Park with its somewhat isolated location, should be equipped with pay phones, for just such an emergency.

Yes, wireless telephones are becoming quite common. And, yes, pay phones are prone to vandalism in out-of-the-way locations like a public park.

But a life may depend on the quick response that a 911 call can bring.