Black River Falls officials will honor the legacy of former Mayor Lou Perry by naming a city hall conference room in his honor.
The city council last week gave the go-ahead to rename city hall’s small conference room the Lou Perry Conference Room to highlight the late mayor’s contributions to Black River Falls.
“It’s an excellent idea,” said current Mayor Ron Danielson. “He deserves that for all the years he put in for the city.”
Perry, the city’s longest serving mayor, died in late July at age 92. He had a long career in public service, including serving on the Jackson County Board of Supervisors from 1976-78 before turning his eye to the city council and running for mayor.
He would go on to lead city hall from 1978 through 2000 and is Black River Falls’ longest serving mayor.
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Former BRF City Administrator Bill Arndt, who suggested the project to honor Perry, said the late mayor deserves recognition for all his contributions but also because of his efforts to start taxi services in the city.
Perry was part of a delegation that testified at a legislative hearing in 1988 to lower restrictions for taxi service subsidies through cities, and funds have since been able to maintain local taxi services that have provided about 100 rides a day for 25 years – or about 900,000, Arndt said.
“(Honoring Perry) is just the right thing to do,” he said.
Perry, who spent half his life serving as a public official, came back to the council in 2004 to fill a vacant alderperson seat and ran for the position in the next election and served through 2006.
Ron Perry, one of Lou’s four children, said the family is honored that the city is moving ahead with the project.
Lou would be both humbled and confused about why BRF is “making a fuss” over him, Ron said.
“We’re very honored that they would consider naming the conference room after my dad,” he said. “The entire family is very honored that they would consider doing that … and I know he would be very proud as well, although he’d may say, ‘I was just doing my job.’
“I think he would have two thoughts: He’d be very pleased and very happy and the other side would be, ‘Why are they making a fuss over me? I enjoyed the people and enjoying serving people in the community of Black River Falls.’”
Current BRF City Administrator Brad Chown said he’s working on acquiring signage for the conference room, which is situated across from city council chambers. The room also likely will add some displays with information about Perry’s contributions to the city, Chown said.