Issues of Importance?

The talk of street name changes has brought city hall to the realization that the citizens of Wentzville do not want any of their historic street names changed. Due to the outcry of these citizens, the Aldermen are in agreement that the current street names will be preserved. With the fear of changing our street names behind us, the stakeholders have begun breathing easier, but hold on.

From early on, there was the mention of something called "Memorial Street Names," but it didn't get much traction until recently when the name change proposal failed. After looking into the subject I found that when a name is memorialized on a given street it places the memorialized name on a green street sign just above the existing street name. What we would see is; Dr. Martin Luther King Blvd. on a green street sign above the existing sign, for example let's say; Pearce Blvd. or Allen Street, or pick a name. This system would relieve residents or businesses the costly address change resulting from a regular street name change and allow the recognition of another important benefactor to the city on a high visibility street.

At the end of the board of aldermen meeting of January 23rd, the board prioritized the work session topic list, one of the topics near the top of the list was; "Memorial Street Names. Alderman of Ward 2, Sonya Shyrock, asked that it be moved more toward the bottom allowing for more important items to the city be addressed first. Interim City Administrator, George Kolb stated that it would not take much time to address the issue and the light bulbs over my head went on.

Today, the city of Wentzville has no code or ordinance allowing for the implementation of a "Memorial Street Name," but one person is pushing for the new ordinance revision to allow it, that person is our Interum City Administrator, George Kolb. Personally, I don't believe the citizens of Wentzville would like this any more than a regular street name change. The problem is this, if the Aldermen revise the ordinance to include "Memorial Street Names," anytime a group wants one they just need to apply and if the name meets the criteria of the new ordinance it would need to be considered. Today because it doesn't exist, the City just needs to reply; "Sorry." If this becomes part of our code, the citizens of Wentzville will need to be constantly vigilant or they could see green memorial sings popping up all over town.

I think Alderman Shyrock "gets it," she knows the residents don't want this and that it should be at the bottom of any list of potential codification. In my opinion, the item should be removed from the list all together and if my readers agree they should call their Aldermen. I think the aldermen today are concerned with important items and will continue pushing it to the bottom but I also believe as long as George Kolb is the CA he will continue trying to get it to rise to the top.

Kolb is scheduled to leave his position on February 15th, I hope the City doesn't run out of list prior to him being replaced. Our Aldertmen need to keep their course of addressing important issues and push feel-good legislation to the bottom of their list. Oh and, thank you Alderman Shyrock!