Howardwick renames streets for fallen astronauts

Emergency crews will no longer be confused by duplicate street names when trying to get around the City of Howardwick because by the end of the summer some streets will be renamed in honor of the men and women who perished aboard the space shuttle Columbia.

After receiving a request from Panhandle Regional Planning Commission (PRPC) to rename their streets in order to resolve confusion among emergency workers, the City of Howardwick held several open meetings in February asking citizens and aldermen for their suggestions on what to rename the streets.

“Alderman Dewey Linley came up with the idea to name the streets after the fallen members of the space shuttle Columbia,” Howardwick Mayor Nancy Davis said.  “The meeting wasn’t long after the Columbia tragedy, and it seemed like a wonderful tribute.”

The city submitted the names of 17 astronauts from Apollo 1 and the space shuttles Challenger and Columbia; but due to the costs of renaming the streets, only eight of those names were chosen.

“We didn’t get to choose which names were picked,” Davis said.  “The aldermen voted on and approved the list we submitted, and PRPC chose which ones to use.”

Emergency workers have had to deal with the obstacles of having two streets named Carroll Creek, two named Pampa, and three named Sailfish, and they are excited about the changes taking place.

“I think it’s a good idea,” Donley County Sheriff Butch Blackburn said.  “We’ve had numerous calls on ‘Carroll Creek;’ and if you’re not careful, you’ll wind up on the wrong side of town.”

Over the summer, workers at a Lubbock plant will inscribe metal signs bearing the names of the fallen astronauts as well as new signs for all of the streets in Howardwick. 

Sherwood Blvd. will become Rick Husband Blvd.; Swanson St. will be Anderson Dr. in honor of Michael Anderson; Sherwood Dr. will be renamed Columbia Dr.; Sadie Dr. will become Chawla Dr. in honor of Kalpana Chawla; Sailfish Dr. will be Ramon Dr. in honor of Israeli astronaut Ilan Ramon; Carroll Creek East will become McCool Dr. in honor of William McCool; Brown Dr. will be renamed Clark Dr. in honor of Laurel Clark; and an unnamed street running along the park will be named Grissom Dr. in honor of Apollo 1 Commander Gus Grissom  Having already had a Brown St., the officials in Howardwick will keep the name in honor of Columbia crew member David Brown.

Two other streets in Howardwick will be named after two of the first manned American space capsules.  Palacio North will become Liberty Dr., and Sailfish St. South will become known as Freedom Dr.

In order to solve other problems in the street names, Pampa Dr. will be known as Pampa St. and Park St. will become part of Palacio Dr.