Highway 965 in North Liberty could be renamed

NORTH LIBERTY - Highway 965, arguably the most-traveled thoroughfare in North Liberty, could be getting a new name.

On Tuesday the North Liberty City Council will discuss the possibility of embarking on an effort to rename the stretch of Highway 965 that runs through North Liberty.

'(The council) has expressed some interest in renaming it, essentially we've proposed a way of them doing that, which we hope allows the community to have a little more ownership in that road,” said Nick Bergus, North Liberty communications director. 'I think there's a real interest in being able to use that main thoroughfare as a way to honor what North Liberty is or someone who is important to North Liberty.”

Bergus said the new name would be honorary, similar to Coralville's First Avenue, which has been dubbed Hayden Fry Way. An honorary name change would involved additional signage to indicate the new name, but mailing addresses wouldn't have to change, Bergus said.

South of North Liberty, in Coralville, Highway 965 is called Coral Ridge Avenue.

Bergus said going with an honorary name helps reduce the burden on any businesses with a Highway 965 mailing address or business name actually tied to the street's current name, like 965 Salon and Spa or 965 Guitars.

As far as selecting a name for North Liberty's stretch of highway, Bergus said the plan is to solicit ideas from the public - if approved by the council a link for name suggestions will go active on the city website - and have a committee choose one of the names as a recommendation for the council, which will make the final approval.

A proposed timeline for the process has the council voting on a recommendation this June.

Outside of adding some signage, Bergus said physical changes will be minor.

Getting the new name to catch on will be the biggest challenge, he said.

'It's a big, prominent street and people know it by 965, so just getting that new name even alongside of 965 is going to be a challenge for us,” he said. 'There's not a lot of cost associated with that, but that's where the effort is going to need to go.”