LITTLE ROCK — A Pine Bluff alderman’s plan to rename a major thoroughfare after Martin Luther King Jr. has drawn the ire of some city leaders.
The Pine Bluff City Council is scheduled to vote on Ward 3 Alderman Glen Brown’s proposal at its June 7 meeting.
The recommendation - which would rename Hazel Street from 13th to 73rd avenues Martin Luther King Jr. Drive - was rejected 7-0 by the Pine Bluff Planning Commission at a Tuesday meeting.
The Rev. Jesse C. Turner, pastor of Elm Grove Baptist Church in Pine Bluff, said few people in town support the name change.
“It’s totally not a good idea,” Turner said. “I’ve talked to no one except Mr.Brown who is in favor of it.”
Numerous attempts to reach Brown for comment throughout the past week at his home and business failed.
Brown said in Planning Commission documents, however, that more than 700 cities have named a street after King. Pine Bluff should do the same, Brown said.
He said he chose Hazel Street because it is a prominent road through town that has a highway exit sign identifying it on nearby Interstate 530.
Under Brown’s plan, the city wouldn’t implement the name change for at least a year, giving people time to adapt.
Jerre George, a regional planner, opposes Brown’s idea.
George said making the switch would be costly for the city and area businesses.
George said about 40 houses, 33 businesses, seven churches, four nursing homes, two apartment complexes, a YMCA and Southeast Arkansas College line that section of Hazel Street.
All told, George estimated that the name change would affect more than 500 individuals.
In addition, 68 intersections would need new street signs, four highway signs would need changing and two off-ramp directional signs would need altering.
Residents would need to change their mailing addresses and get new driver’s licenses, George said.
Businesses would need to alter their business cards, checks, letterhead, envelopes, advertising and websites.
Telephone books, local maps and 911 databases would also need updating.
The college would need to throw out and reprint all its promotional materials.
“There is just so much effect on the people and businesses along the route,” George said. “They’d have to change everything in existence they have.”
Herman Ginger, a Pine Bluff optometrist with a practice on Hazel Street, said he’d have to inform all his patients and their insurance companies of the address switch.
Since 2001, Ginger has worked with almost 40 insurance companies. He’s had 52,000 patient visits during that time.
Ed Olmstead, who runs an insurance business on Hazel Street, said he’d have to redo all the agency mailings, including monthly statements and Christmas cards.
“It would just be a nightmare,” Olmstead said.
Pine Bluff’s Interested Citizens for Voter Registration Inc. has also criticized the proposal.
The group offers some social services such as meals for the homeless, utility assistance for low-income residents and student scholarships.
Turner, the group’s executive director, said Pine Bluff already memorialized King when it renamed a park after him. The park also features a monument and community center honoring King’s late widow, Coretta Scott King.
The city could honor King’s legacy better by keeping up the park and community center better, Turner said.
The grass is overgrown, the playground equipment is outdated and the center is in dire need of new gutters, Turner said.
“If Alderman Brown wants to honor Dr. King, he should focus on getting funding for that,” Turner said. “Then, maybe in later years, we could look at maybe trying to name a street.”
Arkansas, Pages 11 on 05/31/2010