Letter to Erie (CO) Review
Published 3/4/09

DON’T TAKE HONOR AWAY FROM LEON A. WURL

No, no, no! That’s my response to the Erie Town Board’s apparent decision to rename the Leon A. Wurl Parkway. To rob this man of his legacy is to dishonor his unselfish contributions to the town. (Number one on my list in that regard is Erie’s Safeway Shopping Center, which he landed almost single-handedly right away.) After all, it was the town’s leaders who hired him in 1994 to come in and spur Erie’s growth, and did he ever comply -- perhaps too fast, some of us who lived there thought. But that’s not the point.

If the current Erie Town Board seeks uniformity in street names, why not simply change the name of the entire route of this arterial between U.S. 287 and I-25 to Wurl Parkway?

Despite the criticisms leveled by me (and others) at Leon Wurl regarding some of his administrative policies over the years, he was an outstanding leader in his profession and deserves the quasi-permanent recognition that a street name offers. Buildings, unlike streets, as you know, can come and go.

Give this man his just dues.
P.