LLB residents requesting street name changes

Lac La Biche County has been receiving letters from residents on street name change suggestions.

Tuesday’s council meeting addressed the street and road naming policy amendment and the multiple street name change submissions from residents. The policy put restrictions on which street names could be changed. Only streets that are a number were able to get a new name.

“We had a discussion about it and one of the things we talked about is if the street already has a name like Churchill drive, we are probably going to leave those alone,” said Lac La Biche Mayor, Omer Moghrabi.

“We are asking them to go back and review the policy, and if it’s already named we try to work with the people involved to try and find alternate streets.” 

One of the name change proposals came from the Abougouche family, as their IGA has been on 101 Street for over 50 years. The letter suggested to have the street name changed to Abougouche Street because of the family’s long standing devotion to the community, and that their store is not planning on going anywhere.

“Having the street named after our family where our business has stood since 1966 would
bring pride and diversity to our family and to our community. Moving forward we
plan to remain in our location for generations to come, currently our family
business is operating with the third generation management with hopes of future
generations to continue.”

Another street, 100 Street from 101 Avenue, was asked to be changed to Boucher Drive, again because of how the historical significance the Boucher family has had on the hamlet.

“There’s a lot of history in this community and so what we will try to do is redo the policy, get it in the by law and we will get some input from people and come up with something that will work for everybody,” said Moghrabi.

Some council members suggested making plaques for all of the families that have deep roots in Lac La Biche, as a way to commemorate everyone and not have people disagreeing over street signs.

“Lac La Biche is the oldest community in the province, some say it’s the third, but we like to say it’s the first oldest, we have so much history here, and so many families that deserve to be remembered,” said Moghrabi.