A new police officer on patrol pulls someone over near the Roger Short Soccer Complex.
He looks at the nearest street sign to call in his location to E-911 dispatch. It reads, “Henry Armstrong Way.” The dispatcher relays there is no such street in Columbus. After a brief delay, the officer learns he’s on Third Street North.
City Attorney Jeff Turnage and Building Official Kenny Wiegel said Wednesday that actually happened last year. Fire Chief Duane Hughes told The Dispatch two similar stories.
When a player was injured during a recent tournament at the soccer complex, a visitor to town called 911 and reported his location as Henry Armstrong Way. In another instance, a call for a person having a medical emergency in a vehicle near Maranatha Faith Center reported the location as “Steven M. Jamison Way” instead of the official name of Waterworks Road.
In both cases, Hughes said, E-911 contacted Columbus Fire and Rescue, where a veteran officer on duty sorted out the confusion.
“If we had a younger crew, there may have been some difficulty,” he said.
Wiegel said portions of eight to 10 streets in Columbus have an honorary name, with applications in for two others to be considered.
Concerns over how these duplicate street names could impact emergency response have city officials pumping the brakes on new dedications and revisiting what to do about existing ones.
Those concerns came to the fore when the council tabled a request Tuesday to dedicate the 300 and 400 blocks of 17th Avenue North in honor of Columbus native and former Minor League Baseball player Kent Willis. The Planning Commission unanimously recommended the council deny the request and “establish another method of honoring outstanding individuals rather than double naming city streets,” Wiegel reported during the council meeting.
How street dedications work
Street dedications in Columbus, as far as Wiegel can recall, began in 2016 when the council dedicated streets to three area pastors: a portion of Waterworks Road for then-Maranatha pastor Jamison; portions of 20th and 21st Street North for longtime Stephen Chapel Missionary Baptist Church pastor Joe Peoples; and a portion of Fifth Street South for longtime Zion Gate Missionary Baptist Church pastor James A. Boyd.
In January 2022, the council adopted a formal application process for street dedication that requires a $250 fee and signatures from 75% of deeded property owners in the affected area. The applicant must also pay costs for all labor associated with dedicating the street — including signs and the notices mailed to property owners. Those requests go before the Planning Commission.
Since then, the city has dedicated part of Third Street North for Armstrong, a legendary boxer and Columbus native, as well as another two blocks near the soccer complex for Pastor Jimmy Rice. Applications are filed for Willis and NFL coach and former player Leslie Frazier, Wiegel said.
“Streets are named after folks who have had a major impact on the city in some way, through public service or the level of success they received in life,” Mayor Keith Gaskin said in his regular press conference Wednesday at City Hall. “… It’s usually an area of the city where the individual lived at one time or sometimes it’s chosen because of the prominence of (the area).”
Turnage, also during the press conference, said the city opts for honorary dedications instead of formal street renaming to avoid undue hassle on citizens.
“You have to get … with E-911,” he said. “People have mailing addresses they don’t want to change. Some businesses have letterhead, a website. So, the fallback is to dedicate the street.”
Still, he sees the concern with double naming streets, especially when prominent signs on the street pole display the honorary name.
Hughes and Gaskin said if the city continues street dedications, it should bring E-911 into the conversation.
Lowndes County Emergency Services Director Cindy Lawrence agrees.
“The problem with that is, everyone is looking at the sign,” she said. “… When a road name gets on a sign, that’s what the road name needs to be. A lot of people who are from here know 20th Street versus Rev. Joe Peeples (Loop). People who are new and don’t know those roads, yes it does cause confusion. … Accurate road names are very important for emergency services because timing is everything when you’re responding to an emergency situation.”
Revisiting past dedications
Wiegel wants the council to revisit past street dedications and find another way to honor those people. Maybe put a marker at the person’s birthplace, he suggested, or name a park ballfield after them.
“We need to take a second look at those too,” Wiegel said. “They could potentially delay an emergency responder or confuse a person who is in a bad traffic accident.”
Ward 5 Councilman Stephen Jones, who said he supports pausing future dedications until the council comes up with a tenable solution, isn’t as interested in undoing the past. Something as simple as removing the signs from poles and placing them at ground level could help.
“If it’s truly an emergency thing, we have to look at that,” Jones said. “… I’m not for just scrapping the ones that we’ve already done.”
Gaskin said he will consider all possible solutions, including polling other cities, such as Tupelo, on how they handle street dedications.
“I like the idea of being able to recognize folks that have had a major impact on the city in some way,” Gaskin said. “Then again … there may be other ways to do it.”
For Willis, City Recreation Director Greg Lewis said he’s looking at some sort of marker at Propst and Sim Scott parks, where Willis played baseball as a child.
Duane Willis nominated his brother, Kent, for street dedication and pleaded with the council Tuesday not to drop the effort. When reached Wednesday by The Dispatch, he declined to comment, deferring instead to another of his brothers, Ray Willis, whom he said started the process.
The Dispatch could not reach Ray Willis by press time.
Zack Plair is the managing editor for The Dispatch.
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