At Tuesday night’s meeting of the Badin Town Council, the town established an ordinance and a citizen-led subcommittee to oversee new street names.

The new ordinance, which passed with a 4-0 vote with Councilman Larry Milano unable to attend the meeting, allows the town to make name changes.

A Badin citizen may make a request for a street name to be changed, but a petition with 75 percent of the property owners will be required for private requests.

Guidelines for a new street name were also set, which includes a limit of 16 characters with no punctuation. The road also must not duplicate a road name used elsewhere in Badin or the county.

The new ordinance can facilitate any street name change in town and sets the procedure for such changes, according to Town Manager Jay Almond.

The town council also established a community advisory subcommittee of five individuals who will oversee the changes to the street names. Each town council member will nominate a person for this subcommittee, who will send their findings to the town’s planning board. The planning board will then make their recommendation to the council whether to approve or deny the request. The new subcommittee will be facilitated by the Council of Governments.

The council agreed to have nominations for the new subcommittee on or before Aug. 16.

Both moves came after the council in recent meetings heard from West Badin Concerned Citizens asking for the names in the community to be changed.

One street which may not be considered for a change is Grant Street. During the public comments section, Sarah Allen, who said she had lived on Grant for 66 years, delivered a petition against a name change, with 16 signatures from Grant Street residents on it.

In her comments, Allen said, “When I heard about the change, it troubled me in my spirit. When God gets the spirit in you, you’ve got to get up.” She said she hoped the council would take Grant Street off the list of West Badin street names to be changed.

Mayor Pro Tem Deloris Chambers moved to approve the new ordinance, seconded by Councilman Demar Huntley.