Site will include Obama's name

A Californian noticed an omission when he dropped by the Gerald R. Ford Birthsite and Gardens while visiting Omaha last week.

Granite slabs listed 43 U.S. presidents. But the name of No. 44 is missing, nearly 11 months after Barack Obama took office.

The wondering traveler, Christopher Coté of Gilroy, Calif., contacted city officials and asked: How about a little respect for the nation's new chief executive?

The Californian is an active Democrat, but it was the Republican Ford who attracted him to the minipark. Coté was 15 when he met Ford in 1976. Nebraska's native son made an impression, so Coté visited Ford's birth site while in Omaha on business.

“I thought that since it's been a year almost to the day since Obama was elected, it would be a good idea, the right thing to do, to get his name up there,” Coté said.

City officials agree.

Contacted Friday, Omaha Parks Director Steve Scarpello said he had heard of the Californian's concerns. But Scarpello said he had noticed the omission himself about three weeks ago, while reviewing renovations that the Parks Department is doing at the Ford birth site, 32nd Street and Woolworth Avenue.

He said the city has talked to a contractor about adding Obama's name.

“It's not political,” Scarpello said. “It's just something that hasn't gotten done yet.”

He noted that Omaha's last two mayors, Mike Fahey and Jim Suttle, have been Democrats, like Obama, and that Suttle's name has not yet been carved into a tablet listing Omaha mayors.

“Now we'll do Obama and Suttle at the same time and save a little money,” Scarpello said.

So there's no controversy here.

But wait.

The tablets list the presidents' birth states: George Washington, Virginia; Gerald Ford, Nebraska; George W. Bush, Connecticut.

What about Obama?

“Hawaii, of course,” laughed Coté.

Contact the writer:

444-1057, christopher.burbach@owh.com