Citizens get shot at naming Justice Center access road
Grimes County residents can now weigh in on selecting a name for the new access road to the Grimes County Justice and Business Center after County Judge Joe Fauth invited citizens to contact their commissioners with suggestions during the Oct. 6 Regular Meeting of Commissioners Court.
Presenting the agenda item, Road and Bridge Engineer Harry Walker said, “When we worked out the agreement for the land swap for the right of way for the access road off SH 90 to the Justice Center, it was specifically designated it would be a county road. A county road would have to be given a name or a number. The next available number is county road 280, or y’all can choose to give it a name to honor somebody or whatever.”
Walker continued, “In the not too distance future - they’re pouring concrete over there today - the road will be ready to be used and we need to take care of getting the signage put together so I need to know what the name is.”
Judge Fauth said, “I have a notation that if and when we do pick a new name for the new road, it needs to be run by Kat Lee at 9-1-1 to make sure that the name is not already somewhere else in the county.”
Responding to a suggestion submitted by Veterans Service Officer Jay Lafferty to name it Veterans Drive, Commissioner Barbara Walker noted that her office is on Veterans Memorial in Navasota. Engineer Walker agreed that could be confusing and confirmed that 280 is the next number in line for a road in Precinct 2.
The court was reminded that during the early stages of the land swap that landowner Jim Westmoreland suggested naming it after Sheriff Don Sowell. Another suggestion received during court came from history-minded County Clerk Vanessa Burzynski who offered Jesse Grimes Street after Grimes County’s namesake but the court was reminded Grimes Street already exists in the county.
Fauth said, “If you’re watching out there in Facebook land and you have a legitimate suggestion of what you think the name of that road could be or should be, I ask that you contact your commissioner or the county judge’s office. The court will address this again on the next agenda, and in the meantime, we’ll get a review of Veterans Drive and Jesse Grimes Street. CR 280 is a good county road number, so we’ll put those three on the list thus far.”
The item was tabled to the Oct. 20 commissioners court to receive citizen input.