A rededication ceremony for the Veterans Memorial Parkway is tentatively scheduled for May 24.
In 2007, city council passed a resolution to change the name of the Brantford Southern Access Road, or BSAR, to Veterans Memorial.
A formal dedication ceremony was to have been held earlier but was put on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In a report to the city’s planning and administration committee on Tuesday, chief planner Nicole Wilmot said plans also will be made for two street name dedication ceremonies in honor of local soldiers who were killed in Afghanistan.
count. Richard Carpenter received support in 2020 to have the names of Trooper Larry John Zuidema Rudd and Capt. Richard Leary approved for use as street names.
Leary, platoon commander of the 2n/a Battalion Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry regiment, based in Shilo, Man., died on June 3, 2008 of a wound suffered when Afghan and Canadian soldiers came under small-arms fire in the Panjwaii district of Afghanistan.
Rudd was killed May 24, 2010 when an improvised explosive device detonated during a routine security operation 20 kilometers southwest of Kandahar City.
The future streets recognizing the fallen soldiers will be in the Wyndfield West Phase 8B subdivision in the area of Shellard Lane and Conklin Road. The streets are expected to be completed in 2023.
This year, just one name (Finney) was added by council to the city’s approved street name list, to honor Kevin Finney who was the city’s director of economic development and tourism until his sudden death in March. His name will be used for a street name in a yet undetermined industrial subdivision.
Also this year, seven names were removed from the approved street name list to avoid duplication with names already assigned to streets in the County of Brant: Blaney, McIntyre, Mears, Perry, Prine, Stokes and Veall.
No applications to assign approved names to streets were received this year, said Wilmot. Applicants, typically developers, must submit a street name request form to the city and select names from the approved list, which are assigned in order of priority groupings.
Wilmot said it’s anticipated the next application to assign street names will be in the second or third quarter of 2023. The names of streets recently constructed or currently under construction in Brantford were assigned in previous years during the planning stages of those subdivisions.
Under the municipal street naming policy adopted in late 2020, names fall into three general categories:
- Honoring those who gave their lives in public service, including members of the military, local police, firefighters and paramedics;
- Honoring people for community service, including those who served in the Canadian Armed Forces, or for local, national or international historical reasons;
- And names that promote pride in the city, acknowledge heritage and history, unique features and geography.