Opportunity to honor a leader

Post Falls isn’t keen on naming things after leading citizens.

OK, they made an exception for the name of the town — honoring German immigrant Frederick Post — who’s also got a kindergarten named after him. And posthumously, the venerable Hilde Kellogg had a 5-acre park named after her, but for the most part, Post Falls infrastructure leans toward titles like River City This, Ponderosa That and Mullan Trail The Other.

We humbly suggest an exception. We do so knowing that taking such a step increases political pressure significantly. Once you get into the naming game, you risk offending or alienating other leading citizens, and that’s something nobody wants. Yet once every generation or so, somebody proves worthy of the risk. Somebody like Clay Larkin.

Larkin passed the mayor’s gavel more than two years ago to current Post Falls Mayor Ron Jacobson. Larkin did so after five years on the city council and a record 13 years as mayor. But longevity shouldn’t be the measuring stick. Accomplishment should.

We contend that nobody has had a greater impact on Post Falls growth than Larkin. He was an absolute zealot about creating jobs, whether it was a large manufacturing firm, major medical facilities, a big warehouse or a little milkshake-and-burger joint that kept a handful of high school kids employed and off the street. In the year 2000, Post Falls had 17,247 residents. A decade later, with Mayor Larkin at the helm, the population was 27,574. When he’d finished his final term as mayor, Post Falls boasted 30,123 people — many of them there because of jobs he’d helped create and the favorable lifestyle Post Falls offered.

Nearing the age of 80, Larkin isn’t completely done. He’s part of a team of dedicated residents who refuse to take “no” for an answer in the quest to build a facility for veterans in Post Falls. That dream might still take years to be fully realized, but Larkin & Co. own the perfect combination to git ‘er done: patience and persistence.

While Larkin would be the first to recognize the efforts of others, it is our view and the view of many insiders that the Greensferry Overpass, which has significantly improved safety and standard traffic flow in the community, would never have happened without Clay Larkin’s patience and persistence. After two decades of debate, discussion and plenty of hand-wringing, under Larkin’s leadership, the $15 million structure was finished last fall and dedicated on Nov. 11.

With a full understanding of the teamwork that project required and the unquestioned worthiness of other Post Falls civic leaders to be similarly recognized, we recommend that the Post Falls City Council honor the former mayor permanently, in concrete and steel. Using whatever wording they deem best, somehow the new overpass should bear Clay Larkin’s name.