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What's in a name?
Fredericksburg-area localities have different notions about how to name schools and other public properties.Date published: 8/12/2001 STAFFORD COUNTY has a shapely water tower on Ferry Road. Its narrow waist and voluptuous top gave the structure its unofficial name: the Dolly Parton water tower. Former Supervisor Alvin Bandy said he doesn't remember how Dolly got her name, but he remembers his excitement when the tower was finished during a water crisis in the late 1960s or early 1970s. "I climbed up on top of it, I was so glad to get it," said Bandy, a longtime county official whose name graces the school administration building and another water tower in the county. While local officials had no control over the tower's nickname, their policies on naming government structures can stir controversy. Witness the flap earlier this year in Spotsylvania County over the naming of two new schools. When the School Board decided to name its two newest elementary schools based on their geographic locations, the Spotsylvania Preservation Foundation Inc. complained that it should have chosen historic names. Its proposals included naming one for Spotsylvania native Matthew Fontaine Maury, an officer in both the U.S. and Confederate navies and one of the founders of oceanography. Fredericksburg-area localities have different notions about how to name public properties. The Stafford Board of Supervisors and School Board have no official policy, but the School Board has traditionally named middle schools after educators who had significant impacts on the system. In Fredericksburg, the city's Memorials Advisory Commission makes recommendations to the City Council and conducts research when a name is being considered. All four city school buildings are named for famous local residents, including a president, a Revolutionary War hero and two black educators. City teachers plan to use the figures' admirable traits to try to instill character in students next fall. The Spotsylvania Board of Supervisors has no policy either and has named a number of buildings and parks for county officials and residents over the years. The former Spotsylvania High School building was renamed the Marshall Center for Supervisor Emmitt Marshall and his father, the late Solon Marshall. The elder Marshall was a supervisor for 12 years; his son has been on the board since 1980. Marshall Park also is named for Solon Marshall. Marshall said the names are an honor: "It shows the people who were in power respected us."
Date published: 8/12/2001
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