Commissioners OK memorial highway designation policy

Clears way for Capt. Bianchi Memorial Highway

NEW ULM – Brown County Commissioners adopted a policy and procedure for Memorial Highway Designation.

County Engineer Andrew Lang said a memorial highway program had been discussed with the county's Highway Committee. The idea behind the program would be to honor notable people from the community by naming a segment of highway or county road in their memory.

Anyone in the county could submit an application nominating an individual to the County Administrator and/or County Engineer, which would then be brought before the County Commissioners for consideration.

Lang said in discussing the program, it was initially considered to use this program to honor Captain Willibald Bianchi, a WWII Medal of Honor recipient who remains were formally returned to his home in New Ulm earlier this year.

Lang said idea would be to renamed a section of County Highway 25 from Truck Highway 15 to Truck Highway 13 along the south side of New Ulm.

The memorial designation policy specifies that the candidate for a propose named roadway must have a notable and enduring contribution to the community, county, state or nation.

Requests that offend public morals or decency will be declined.

The person requesting a designation must provide a complete biography of the proposed honoree and various letters of support from appropriate sources, including any additional information required by the County Board to assist in the decision-making process.

If approved by the board, the cost to produce and install the route marking signs shall be the responsibility of the County Highway Department.

If approved, route signs would be installed by the Highway Department at each terminus of the named highway segment.

The named roadway designation will remain in effect for 10 years. The county has the option to extent the designation or replace the markers as needed.

Commissioner Anton Berg asked if there was any additional cost with this program.

Lang said the only real cost would be the signs and the staff time it takes to install them.

Berg said he fully agreed with the program because if nothing else, a memorial highway designation would give a history lesson to anyone curious about the person behind the name.

"That in itself is valuable," Berg said.

Commissioner Scott Windschitl said he also appreciated the policy had a built-in 10 year renewal process. This way if the signage needed to come down for some reason, there was a time to make the change.

Lang said the life expectancy of the signs was about 15 years, but the 10 year renewal gives the county a chance to review.

County Attorney Charles Hanson said his only recommendation for the policy was to allow flexibility for the board to modify a roadway request.

Hanson said as written, the board could only approve or deny a request for a specific road. He suggested the commissioner have the ability to approve a modified version of an application instead of rejecting it.

For example, if an applicant requested an entire roadway be dedicated to a honoree, the commissioners would have the option to modify the request and approve the designation for a part of the roadway.

Commissioner Brian Braun said he was glad to see this program be presented as a way to honor Capt. Bianchi.

Braun made the motion to approve Memorial Highway Designation policy, along with the recommendation made by Attorney Hanson. It was unanimously approved by the commissioners.

Commissioner David Borchert said he thought the policy was an extremely good idea; especially since it would be used to honor Capt. Bianchi. He believed the policy would be a benefit to the community as a whole.