By Howard Packowitz
NORMAL – The Normal Town Council backed the idea Monday night of renaming Mitsubishi Motorway after the company that’s taken over the Mitsubishi plant and intends to build electric vehicles there.
However, the vote and lengthy debate was another example of glaring differences among the elected leaders following April’s council election.
The council voted 4-2 to approve renaming the section of U.S. Route 150 Rivian Motorway.
Recently-elected council members Stan Nord and Karyn Smith voted no. They favored renaming a smaller service road for Rivian.
Nord said changing the more heavily traveled road will confuse out-of-town travelers looking for the Interstate Center, or truckers who might get lost looking for warehouses in the area.
They may plug it in their GPS, the navigation system in their car or their phone, and they’re going to be driving along, looking for Mitsubishi Motorway. They’re not going to see it. They may just pass it on by,” said Nord.
“The trucks that are serving all the warehouses out there, those trucks come in from all over the place as well. That’s what they’re going to be looking for.”
According to Nord, the government should not be renaming major roads after anything temporary like a business.
The buildings and the street remain, and then it puts us in a spot where maybe we have to change that again in the future,” said Nord.
That road was originally Diamond Star Parkway, then it was Mitsubishi Motorway, now we’re going to change it to Rivian. All this is a lot of unnecessary change,” Nord added.
Council member Chemberly Cummings says it’s “a little insane” arguing about a street.
“I don’t see what the issue is in allowing a company who’s coming here to invest their dollars to have a street named after them,” Cummings said.
Council member Scott Preston said the name change is “a great sign of progress.”
Council member Kevin McCarthy said the change is a small token of community support for Rivian.
“We believe in a business that’s investing millions in our community, growing jobs in our community, one of the small things that we can do is rename a road to help show our local support of a business that’s investing so heavily in our local community,” McCarthy said.
New street signs won’t go up until the Bloomington City Council, the McLean County Board and the Emergency Telephone System Board, which oversees McLean County 911 service, approve the change.
Howard Packowitz can be reached at [email protected]
