IMUD taking street name issue to city
By BRENDA SOMMER bsommer@leader-news.com

Isaacson Municipal Utility District directors plan to take the battle over a street name to the next El Campo City Council meeting.

During Thursday night's IMUD meeting, trustees talked about recent problems with the name of a crossroad in the district, one that also runs into the El Campo city limits.

In May 2006, the district asked County Commissioner Jimmy Kainer for new street signs, to replace old, barely-readable signs. In 2007, those signs were installed, but had changed the name of Olivia Street to Oliva Street.

In February of this year, two district residents went to the IMUD office to report they'd received letters from the 9-1-1 Addressing System telling them their house numbers had been changed and that their street name was now Oliva.

According to IMUD manager Wanda Evanicky, 9-1-1 Addressing head Jim Guinn told her Feb. 27 the road had always been Oliva, and signage had always used that name. However, an old "Olivia" street sign from before the county installed new signs was on a table during Thursday night's meeting.

"We've got people who've lived on that street since 1943 and it's always been Olivia," Evanicky said.

Calls, letters and visits then went back and forth between Evanicky and longtime IMUD residents and board members, the county clerk's office, the post office, Kainer, Guinn and finally, El Campo City Inspector Andy Waligura.

"The street sign with Olivia Street that was there was an incorrect spelling," Waligura wrote to the district. "The city checked the original mapping for that area and also checked the City's original block maps and the correct name for that street is Oliva Street. The street sign was replaced with the correct street spelling."

"Who gives (Waligura) the authority to change it, that's what I want to know," IMUD board President Floyd Fisher said.

Evanicky then went to the county clerk's office to look up the original plat, which began with a 100-acre subdivision created by E.T. Isaacson in the 1940s. The original plat did not contain street names, but the map of the water district when it was created stated the road was Olivia Street, Evanicky said.

Evanicky added 9-1-1 Addressing had issued new addresses to adjacent homes, meaning one house had an Olivia Street address while the next house was now officially on Oliva Street. She said homeowners were distressed by the move and unsure how to proceed.

Board attorney Charlie Michulka said because IMUD falls within El Campo's extraterritorial jurisdiction, the city has final say in the matter.

"If they want to come change that name to Jones Avenue, they probably could do it," he said. He directed the board to the city's subdivision ordinances regarding clerical errors in street names, which seem to indicate Council would need to act on the matter.

The board voted unanimously to:

• Have Michulka call El Campo City Attorney Ronny Collins for more information on the name change;

• Ask for the issue to be put on the Council's agenda when they next meet on March 25; and

• Send letters to every resident of the district, asking them to attend that Council meeting.

"I feel like we're being picked on by the city of El Campo … but we're going to fight them," Fisher said.