Item 6: PH - Ordinance Renaming 3rd/4th Connector

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KULLBY Kent R ,") , ) RECEIVED From: TWHnotes@aol.com Sent: Monday, March 13, 2006 4:48 PM MAR 1 4 2006 To: KU LLBY Kent R Subject: 3d-4th Connector Renaming CITY OF EUGENE PLAt'JNING DEPARTMENT Dear Kent Kullby, I was pleased to receive your name from Ken Guzowski after my inquiry a couple weeks ago about renaming of the road along the south foot of Skinner Butte. I learned only last evening from the Shelton-McMurphey-Johnson board minutes and agenda that a hearing is tomorrow! I am Shelton McMurphey "family liaison" but we have not been in touch about this issue. I will send them the same thoughts I write below. During an impromptu visit to the grounds with Ken in the fall, he mentioned some proposed names for the improved road, and I asked him for an update after hearing not long ago that "Shelton Boulevard" was proposed. I've canvassed other Shelton descendants (a few grandchildren of and a few great-grandchildren of Robert and Alberta Shelton McMurphey, none of whom has the Shelton surname), and each, independently, has fully favored use of "Shelton". The eldest, Alberta Roberts Tobey (b.1915), who lived in the house for several years growing up, wrote: "Grandma [Alberta Shelton McMurphey] would be happy because she would feel that no name could be as associated as her maiden name." In addition to factors such as Shelton's Additions to Eugene, his ownership of the Butte and transfer of some of it to the water utility he cofounded, and his permission to the University to build an observatory, I remember family accounts that Dr. and Mrs. Shelton, both interested in botany, ordered from around the U.S. to plant the then-barren south side of the Butte; found a contemporary newspaper report that he welcomed the townspeople their cattle up the Butte to graze -- and eventually built the road to summit to keep the house gardens from being trampled. trees and I to drive its I have been sorry the the story of T.W. Shelton is now so little known, owing to his death so young so long ago (aged 49, 1893). The Guard account of his return to Eugene from California, a physician unable to cure his own illness -- met by friends who carried him to his house -- bulletins the next few days, till the obituary -- are poignant. His love for the town was certain, and inspired the civic life of his daughter during the sixty years she lived in the house. Mention of the road up the Butte brings up the question of road nomenclature. It is certainly the farthest thing from a "Boulevard" -- which it was named, wasn't it? Each of the descendants feels that "Boulevard" sounds inappropriate for the Butte-front road, discordant with its site, characteristics, and history. I wonder whether the idea came up to conform with the existing "Shelton Boulevard" -- and whether any consideration has been or can be given to changing that (of which I guess few people are aware) to more accurate nomenclature -- "Shelton Drive", -for-instance, which acknowledges the cattle driving and a common current meaning of "Drive", that it affords the prospect of scenery or a view? Most of the family members suggested that "Shelton Road" would sound most natural and fitting for the connector renaming. I don't know what the City or other interested parties deem the options to be, but I wonder if these distinctions may be discussed: A "Road" is usually outside of a grid of city blocks, a "Street" usually has sidewalks, an "Avenue" might be lined with statelier buildings, perhaps trees -- and "Boulevard" usually connotes a major, broad thoroughfare, formally laid out with trees and belts of turf or flowers, with heavy traffic requiring stoplights at intersections -- and, especially in world capitals, with which one