Law enforcement officers from Paola, Louisburg, Osawatomie and Miami County recently gathered at the Miami County First Responders Memorial at the Miami County Sheriff’s Office to show respect for the memorial and the names on it during National Peace Officers’ Memorial Day. According to the Miami County Republic, when the Miami County Sheriff’s Office and Detention Center was completed in 2017, it included the three-piece memorial along the front façade facing Pearl Street. The memorial honors first responders who have died in the line of duty. One section of the memorial is for emergency medical personnel, another for police officers and the third for firefighters.
There initially were only two names on the memorial, and both were police officers – Osawatomie Police Officer James H. Helms, who died in 1895, and Osawatomie Police Chief Michael F. Churchill, who died in 1947. In 2023, the name of former Paola Assistant Fire Chief Wendell Phillips was added after it was determined that he died as a result of a house fire he responded to in 1957. While fighting the fire, Phillips suffered a heart attack, and he died two days later at the age of 55.
