A project is being launched to have street names in Lakeshore named after local veterans.
Throughout 2024, staff with the municipality have worked with the Belle River and Comber branches of the Royal Canadian Legion to develop a list of local veterans who were killed in action in World War I and World War II.
The names of the veterans will be compiled and incorporated into Lakeshore's Street Naming Policy.
Currently, local developers can suggest names for new streets, which are reviewed and approved if they meet the requirements outlined in the policy.
Tammy Ryall, Lakeshore's Corporate Leader of Growth and Sustainability, says they wanted to recognize and honour veterans..
"We have a policy for street naming in Lakeshore that talks about honouring our veterans and individuals who fought for our country while including their names for street naming purposes, but we didn't have a list of names," she says.
Ryall says they reached out to the local Legions and have developed a list of 30 surnames.
"When developers come forward to develop new subdivisions, we can provide those names to the developers and go through our review and criteria. Hopefully we'll see some of those names appear on the streets in the next year or two," she says.
Ryall says it's not mandatory that the developers use the names.
"It's suggested that the developers, if they're looking for street names, can use this list," she says. "We can work with the national legion to get the poppy inscribed on the street sign as well and honour our veterans in that way."
An online submission form and list of current names of Lakeshore veterans will be published on Lakeshore.ca.
