Posted on 03/24/2005 9:31:42 AM PST by ReagansRaiders
Some residents oppose naming highway for Reagan
By SARI KRIEGER
skrieger@potomacnews.com
Thursday, March 24, 2005
Janice Cunard worked in the Reagan administration's Treasury Department, and she votes Republican. But the Woodbridge resident adamantly opposes naming Dumfries Road the "Ronald Wilson Reagan Memorial Highway."
"I just don't feel we should be changing the names," Cunard said. "Leave our history."
As a member of the Prince William Historical Commission, Cunard opposes the action. The commission formally voted to oppose it as well.
Delegate L. Scott Lingamfelter sponsored the bill that would make this distinction. He saw it pass both the House of Delegates and the Senate by wide margins during this year's lawmaking session.
The bill doesn't change the highway name, like Cunard suggests; it adds an honorary dedication to the former president, he said.
"She has consistently mischaracterized what's happened," Lingamfelter said of Cunard. "No road signs change, no addresses change, no P.O. Box numbers change. The road is still known and referred to on maps as Dumfries Road."
HB 1656 awaits the governor's signature, and he has until Wednesday to sign or veto the bill. Gov. Mark R. Warner's spokesperson Ellen Qualls said the governor has yet to announce his decision to support or reject the bill.
The Prince William Board of County Supervisors had voted unanimously to support the measure. But they learned of it after it had been submitted in the General Assembly by Lingamfelter, said Board of Supervisors Chairman Sean T. Connaughton, R-at large.
"We obviously have an interesting relationship with the state on most matters involving transportation," Connaughton said. "Obviously it would have been better if we had been consulted before the legislation had been introduced. We dealt with it as we thought to be appropriate."
Cunard wanted more resident involvement in this decision, she said.
"There's enough community events that it could be mentioned at, or an article could be done on it," Cunard said. "Nobody knew about it, including the board of supervisors."
After learning about the measure, the board held a public hearing on whether to support it. The county advertised the hearing a week in advance, but no residents attended, Connaughton said.
The Historical Commission voted to oppose the measure after the county's public hearing. Dale City resident Grant Bell understood Cunard and others' complaints, but didn't know why they waited to voice them, he said. Bell felt Lingamfelter had made people aware of his intentions for this bill, he said.
"He may not have made an official announcement, but I feel like he at least got the word out that that was going to happen, at least before the session started," Bell said.
Cunard and Betty Duley, former chairwoman of the Historical Commission, pointed to the road's history -- dating back to the 1700's -- as a reason to oppose the designation.
"We have an obligation, we feel, to the citizens of Prince William County that we try to uphold and protect any historical structure," Duley said. "Before you jump out on a limb and do something about that, you should come to Prince William historical groups, and the public needs a chance to give their opinion."
State lawmakers should work on fixing roads, not renaming them, Duley said.
"I think it sets a very bad precedent," she said. "If this happens with this, then what's down the line."
Dumfries Mayor Mel Bray felt the state should leave road naming to local jurisdictions, he said.
But by submitting the bill, Lingamfelter had merely done what many residents had asked of him, he said.
"I favor it to honor Ronald Reagan," Bell said. "I believe he was the finest president of the last century, at least of my lifetime. I thought it was a small thing we could do to honor him."
Many who oppose the bill hold the former president in high esteem but would rather see the road named after a local hero.
"As a Dumfries person, I think that the road should have been dedicated to some of our fallen veterans that lived in this area," Bray said. "Ronald Reagan was a good president and I voted for him several times. But I think it should be named after one of our veterans."
The county board's resolution supporting the designation included a list of heroes of local significance whom the state should consider for any future designations.
Personally, I don't think that the bill goes far enough. I'm for all-out renaming rather than just an honorary designation.
At least in the Los Angeles area, the 118 Freeway "Ronald Reagan Freeway" was named as a newly built road...fortunately that dilemma didn't exist.
If only we could change the name of "LBJ Freeway" here in Dallas.
This is silly. Virginia does this on highways all the time; they put little signs along the roads that call it the "so-and-so highway," but that doesn't change the road's actual name used in addresses. I grew up along US 60 in central Virginia and it had signs along it designating it the "John A. Anderson Highway." I STILL don't know who the heck John A. Anderson was, but people that live on that stretch of road don't live on John A. Anderson Highway, they live on Richmond Turnpike.
Street names are set at the county/city level. The whole "memorial highway" thing is at the state level. It would be up to Prince William County if they wanted to change Dumfries Road to Reagan Highway officially.
It's just another example of liberals knee-jerking.
}:-)4
Unless, of course, he owned slaves, was mean to an Indian, ever ate meat or wore fur or thought ill of deviant tinkerbells or in any other way offended a professional victims' group, no matter how small, insignificant or plain foolish. If the name is offensive to any left wing, crybaby whiners, then, yes, of course, as a panderer, I believe the name should be changed in that case.
If they wanted to name the highway after Caesar Chavez there wouldn't be one voice raised in opposition.
I can't see why anyone would object to Ronald Reagan Highway unless there were forty something of them already.
Yes, and it's even more heartwarming to see the historical Ronald Reagan Trail daily. A little compensation for living in Illinois :)
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