Remove ImagesPlease stop them before they name again
January 24, 2013
Now that the Guilford County Building Naming Committee has given official names to just about every county-owned building and conference room in the county, it's becoming a real worry that the Building Naming Committee might soon create a chaotic scene at the newborn wing of the Women's Hospital in Greensboro by showing up uninvited and unannounced one morning and attempting to give county-sanctioned names to all the babies – something that would no doubt cause a huge conflict with parents wishing to name their own newborns.
The Guilford County Building Naming Committee hasn't quite reached that point yet. However, after working constantly over the last two years to give official names to county-owned buildings and conference rooms, it became clear this month that – after a long hiatus – the naming committee was back in business naming things with a vengeance with no end in sight.
Many in the county assumed the committee was finished, however, the naming committee met on Wednesday morning, Jan. 16 in the manager's conference room on the second floor of the Old Guilford County Court House.
Now the committee is taking its naming efforts outdoors by naming park trails, park areas and open spaces. The naming committee is also, among other endeavors, instigating a widespread initiative to put up numerous signs and plaques identifying trails and open areas. The plaques would explain some of the history behind the chosen names.
Those naming and signage issues, along with several other topics, were addressed at the Jan. 16 meeting, which was attended by outgoing Guilford County Manager Brenda Jones Fox, Assistant Manager Sharisse Fuller – who's also the county's human resources director and soon to be the county's interim manager – and Commissioner Kay Cashion, who chairs the naming committee. Also attending were Facilities Director Fred Jones, who is retiring at the end of January, interim Property Management Director Sandy Woodard, and Commissioners Alan Branson and Bruce Davis, who both serve on the committee.
At the meeting, the committee discussed renaming 11 open space areas and two trails. Many of the names that the committee is going to recommend to the Board of Commissioners have been suggested by the Guilford County Open Space Committee, which is charged with preserving open space in the county. The Open Space Committee has requested that all newly named or renamed open space areas include the word "Preserve" so that citizens are aware those spaces are being maintained as natural areas, although some citizens associate preserves with sweet jelly-like substances that come in a jar.
Before the names become official, they must be approved by the Guilford County Board of Commissioners. The latest slate of proposed names may come before the board next month.
Two tracts of land being renamed – the Conrad Tract and the Wall Place Tract – are near the Mears Fork Creek corridor north of Greensboro. The headwaters of that creek, which runs into the Haw River, originate near Summerfield. Guilford County has purchased land along Mears Fork Creek, and the nearby Conrad Tract and Wall Place Tract will all be replaced with the name "Mears Fork Corridor Preserve," in order to have a single contiguous preserve with a common name.
The proposed name for another natural area is "Cascades Preserve." A handout at the Jan. 16 committee meeting stated that the name comes from the fact that the stream on the property has "cascading waterfalls."
Another open area south of Greensboro, between High Point and Forest Oaks, will be called "Safreright Preserve" – if the Board of Commissioners approves the name. The Safreright family owned the land for generations.
Other areas getting official county names are the Mckee-Huger Preserve, Richardson-Taylor Preserve, Hines Chapel Preserve, Benbow Preserve, Atlantic and Yadkin Greenway Preserve, Deep River Preserve and McCandless Woods Preserve. Those are named either after landmarks – such as Hines Chapel – or after families who donated or sold the land to the county.
The committee is also now starting to name park trails. One trail on McCandless Woods Preserve, a 30-acre area due south of Greensboro, will be name the "Lillian and Luther McCandless Trail," while a trail in the Bold Moon Preserve, which is 20 acres northeast of Greensboro, is still in need of a name.
Cashion said that putting up signs in the newly named areas would aid emergency responders. For instance, if a hiker sees someone attacked by a rabid raccoon and calls 911 to give the location of the attack, he or she will know to run to the sign for the official name of the trail before calling 911, leaving their companion to fight off the rabid raccoon for hours while the sign is located. (The truth is probably that emergency responders are much more likely to know the old name of a place than a brand new one given by the committee and known by only a handful of county officials.)
The Building Naming Committee is also now moving on to other tasks such as deciding the size and the font or typeface to be used on signs, as well as determining the number of angels that can dance on those signs. It is also planning ceremonies to celebrate new building and conference room names.
At one point in the Jan. 16 meeting, Cashion acknowledged, "It's sort of a stretch from where we started."
The committee is even looking into the Great Mystery of the Lost Veterans Plaque.
Jones told the committee that, years ago, there was a plaque at the entrance of the Old Guilford County Court House that displayed the names of war veterans from Guilford County, but Jones added that, at some point the plaque mysteriously disappeared.
Jones said one war veteran kept calling and asking about the disappearance of the plaque. Jones told him that no one knew where the plaque was, but the man stressed the importance of finding it since he was honored on it.
Jones called a state veterans affair administrator in Raleigh who said the state had a list of the names that were on the plaque in the Old Court House. The veterans affair worker also informed Jones that the man's name was in fact not on the plaque – he explained that the names on that plaque were those of people from Guilford County who had died – not who had simply fought.
When Jones told the story to the committee, Woodard told Jones, "You better hope that wasn't the same man calling," and Fuller postulated that it could have been "a ghost."
Jones said it turns out that the man's name was indeed on the plaque. However, it was actually the name of another man from Guilford County who coincidently had the same name as the caller but who had died in the war.
The committee may create a new plaque honoring those from Guilford County who died during WWI. That plaque would likely be placed at the entrance of the Old Court House.
The Building Naming Committee is now also looking into creating a plaque that would be put up at Phill G. McDonald Plaza – the governmental plaza in downtown Greensboro between the Old Guilford County Court House and city hall – honoring Guilford County veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The new plaque will perhaps be displayed on the opposite end of the plaza from an existing plaque that honors veterans of the Vietnam War.