ROCKLAND – At its agenda setting meeting on Monday, March 6, at City Hall, the Rockland City Council honored the family of Dan Flanagan with a plaque for his years of community service with the Rockland Recreation Center. Flanagan passed away on New Year’s Day, 2017. He was 80 years old and a father of five children.

“Growing up here myself and some of my peers that didn’t have that family support, a lot of people did turn to this one person,” said Mayor Will Clayton. “It’s amazing the number of hours he put in, the time and work that he put into that building welcoming. Not only teaching basketball skills, but at the same time teaching life skills. A lot of people didn’t realize that at the time, but they do now.”

The plaques read: In memory of Edward Dan Flanagan. In recognition of his life long dedication to the youth of this community, mentoring them on and off the court. Teaching both basketball fundamentals and invaluable life lessons. In htis, the year of our Lord, March 6, 2927.

Heidi Vanorse-Neal, Susan Ware Page, Tom Malloy and Steven Durell sat with councilors following the presentation and asked that the Rockland Rec. Center be renamed the “Flanagan Community Center.”

Mayor Clayton confided that he did not know Flanagan's father, James Flanagan, was also recreation director.

“A couple of different options we discussed was placing something on the floor, which led rather quickly into naming the community building,” said Clayton. “Everyone knows it as the Rec. Center, but not everyone knows it by its real name of the Rockland Community building.”

Clayton said the committee had done quite a bit of footwork themselves to get pricing costs and materials. And support from the community.

Clayton then pointed out a photo of the proposed name change, changing the name to Flanagan Community Center.

Susan Ware-Page said they were looking for a concept that was attractive to the city.

“We wanted something that would be no maintenance to the city,” she said. “And we wanted to raise the money to pay for this ourselves. We don’t want it to be any cost to the city. The Flanagan family has approved the sign and if we get approval we want to move forward to raise the money and handle the installation.”

Ware-Page said the idea is to honor the legacy of Dan and his father Jim.

“We want to change the name building to center because a center is a gathering place,” she said. “It’s a place that Dan taught us about basketball, but he taught us about life, and about respect and how to have fun. It would be a real honor to do this because it’s incredible that one man can touch the lives of so many people. I think this is the least we can do to honor his memory.”

Councilors supported the proposal to rename the Rec. Center and will formalize it with a vote scheduled for its regular meeting on March 13.