In less than six months, Centralia College will officially have a city street named after it.
In a unanimous decision Tuesday night, the Centralia City Council voted to change the name of West Locust Street between Tower Avenue and Hemlock Street to Centralia College Boulevard. The change will officially take place Jan. 1, 2007.
The change was first suggested by representatives of Centralia College and the Centralia-Chehalis Chamber of Commerce at a city council meeting in late May. City Manager J.D. Fouts said the new name fit with phase two of the Centralia downtown revitalization plan.
Letters were sent to the nearly 40 affected residents and businesses. As of Thursday, the city had received comments from fewer than a dozen of then, about half of whom were for the change and about half of whom were against.
Fouts said the majority of those against the idea had issues with changing letterhead, address labels, checks and other items bearing addresses. Fouts said he spoke to the Centralia postmaster about the issue, and was told both Centralia College Boulevard and West Locust Street would be accepted for one year following the changeover.
For others, such as John Verbalin, Centralia, the objection had to do with the historical significance of the street's name. Despite the joke that Locust referred to the destructive swarming insect, the street's name is in reference to the tree species, as are most streets in the area. In researching the history of the street names, Verbalin concluded that Centralia founder George Washington likely coined them.
"For people coming in from outside the area, we want to show them our history," he said.
Though it does not date back to Centralia's founding, Centralia College does play a significant part in the city's history, countered Centralia College President Jim Walton. Centralia College is the oldest continually operating community college in the state, which makes it a large draw for the city, the educator asserted. Walton said he believes the name change would foster a better relationship between the college's more than 4,000 students and the downtown business core.
"There's one compelling reason that this needs to be done: We're trying to grow and expand and better ourselves," Walton said.
As a compromise between those who wanted the name change and those who objected for historic reasons, the Centralia council also unanimously approved a historic sign to be added to the new Centralia College Boulevard signs. The notations, the design of which will be approved by the Centralia Historic Preservation Commission, will read "historic name - West Locust Street." Debi Wilber, Centralia, who spoke as an affected resident as well as a representative of Schinnell Surveying and Mapping on Locust, said she thinks the change would fit nicely with the city's historic significance.
"I'm pretty sure if George Washington was here, if my history is correct he was all about education, and he would be pretty thrilled to have a street in the city named after such a gem as Centralia College," Wilber said.
Councilor Carol Lee Rickard was absent from Tuesday's meeting.
Carrina Stanton covers municipal government and health for The Chronicle. She may be reached at 807-8241, or by e-mail at cstanton@chronline.com.
