Merced club wants M Street to become Veterans Boulevard

If Merced Sunrise Rotary is successful, before the year is over, drivers will cross Merced by taking Veterans Boulevard.

The club has begun a campaign to change M Street to Veterans Boulevard, according to member Rich Miller. The club is looking for a way to honor veterans and their families.

Miller, a retired UC Merced administrator, said the Honoring Our Veterans Committee ran through a list of five or six roads before settling on the major thoroughfare of M Street.

“ ‘Prominent’ and ‘permanent’ are kind of the buzzwords here,” the 78-year-old said.

The group said they wanted a street everyone in town is likely to use and that is unlikely to see an overhaul. Miller said other nods to veterans in Merced are too easily forgotten.

Few know that the bridge on M Street over Bear Creek is called the Merced Veterans Memorial Bridge, he said, which it was deemed on Nov. 11, 2001. He also noted that the park most people call “Courthouse Park” is officially Veterans Memorial Park.

The campaign for a street name change will consist of community meetings, a petition and other educational efforts to try to rally support, Miller said. The club has set a “lofty” goal for completion by Nov. 11, Veterans Day, he said.

There are about 460 addresses on M Street, according to David Gonzalves, Merced development services director. That includes homes toward the southern end of the street, as well as public buildings like the Merced County Administration Building and Merced College.

Gonzalves said the process to change a street name is not expressly laid out in the city’s codes. “There’s no official process,” he said.

He said he’s encouraged the club to follow the path set out in 1992, when a group was able to lobby to change then-J Street to Martin Luther King Jr. Way. That path includes bringing the public into the process.

Ultimately, the Merced City Council would have to vote to approve the change.

Miller said the kinks are still being worked out, and it’s unclear who would pay for the new signs and cost to put them up. He said the club has some money it’s made from the Field of Honor it puts up at Merced College in past Novembers.

The committee will begin going door-to-door to talk to homeowners and businesses on M Street.

“I think it’s important to get their support,” he said. “We’re trying to be kind about it.”

This story was originally published April 8, 2016 at 6:54 PM with the headline "Merced club wants M Street to become Veterans Boulevard."