City receives mixed response to Toledo Street name change

The possibility of a name change for Toledo Street when the road is extended from Fort Sidney to link 17J as part of the East Sidney Development was the topic of some debate at the last two city council meetings.

The city invited the public to submit name suggestions for the road through both social media and traditional means.

“The whole idea behind this was to come up with a name that was more representative of the Sidney area, the Sidney community, Western Nebraska, which you can make the argument Toledo Street doesn’t fit that description,” said city manager Gary Person.

This effort received quite a bit of feedback from the public with 68 name submissions and 90 versions of those names.

“It was just kind of a way to engage the public for their input as to what they would like to see Toledo named,” said economic development director Megan McGown. “It in no way means the council has to make a decision using this method.”

Person spoke with the four addressees that would be impacted by a name change from 10th Ave. East.

“It doesn’t seem to be an issue with anyone,” Person said.

Beyond 10th Ave. west, a name change would impact 35 additional properties and a nursing home and assisted living center.

“I would suggest that that’s not an option at this point,” Person said at a meeting earlier this month.

Councilman Roger Gallaway argued that cutting off the name at 10th Ave. wouldn’t make sense and might present problems in the future.

“I guess in my opinion if we’re gonna change it I would expect to change all of it,” Gallaway said. “To me it doesn’t make any sense whatsoever to have five blocks of the street orphaned off.”

Councilman Mark Nienhueser thought the idea of a street name connected to Sidney might be a good idea.

“I’m not much into the warm, fuzzy stuff but none of the streets in the community are really named after anything of any significance,” Nienhueser said.

At request from the council, all those on Toledo from 10th Ave. to 15th Ave. were asked for their opinion about changing the name of the entire length of the street. Of the 20 addresses, 14 responded—and these were unanimously opposed to a name change.

Although the council was concerned about changing a street name at the intersection of Toledo and 10th Ave., because they believed this would cause confusion, Person discovered 11 examples where this has already been done in Sidney.

“I was shocked when I reviewed that,” Person said.

Councilman Chris Gay said he’d talked to quite a few people who didn’t want the name to change.

“I don’t have all that much interest in changing the name of the road,” Gay said.

Some of the other council members were reticent to change the name as well.

“I’m not so sure any of these really jump out at me and say, oh this really fits,” councilman Joe Arterburn said.

Nienhueser suggested tabling the matter for the moment in order to see if the name of the east Sidney housing development fit well with any of the proposed street names.

“It’s got to convince a lot of us,” said Sidney Mayor Wendall Gaston.