By By Steve Gillespie / staff writer
May 14, 2004
Sadie Martin didn't like the sound of Sweet Gum Bottom Road when it was first given about 10 years ago to the street where she lives but she said she's learned to accept it.
Now she and many other residents are fighting to keep it after finding out that the road's name has been changed to A.M. Walker Drive.
Martin said she and other residents learned of the name change from a letter they received May 8 from the Lauderdale County Emergency 911 Commission. She said the letter stated that the city had changed the road name at the recommendation of the county.
Although the road is within Meridian city limits, Martin holds the Lauderdale County Board of Supervisors responsible for the name change. And she told them so at a work session Thursday.
Old petition
Martin informed the board that a petition provided by the county wanting the road name changed was from February 1998. She said many of the residents listed on the petition don't remember signing it.
The petition of 28 names also includes five non-residents of the road, and two who were minors at the time the petition was filed, according to Martin.
The petition also calls for the road to be named in the honor and memory of Louis Walker, not A.M. Walker.
Martin gave the board a list of 27 people who are not in favor of the name change. Martin said a road name change affects many aspects of residents' lives.
She said she and her husband, Bobby, have run their small trucking business from their home since 1988, and an address change could hurt their business and other businesses on the road.
No explanation
Supervisors didn't offer an explanation to Martin's questions of how a 6-year-old petition was relied upon to request the road's name change. District 2 Supervisor Jimmie Smith recommended that the board rescind its name-change request to the city at the supervisors' formal business meeting Monday.
After Thursday's work session Martin said she is happy about the supervisors' plan. She said she intends to ask the Meridian City Council to revoke the name change at its meeting scheduled for Tuesday.
Supervisors themselves planned to change the road's name last fall; the board set a Nov. 3 public hearing on the name change. But at the hearing, County Engineer Neal Carson told supervisors the road is in the Meridian city limits.
Martin told supervisors she was disappointed in them and told them they had shown a callous attitude toward the issue.