VALDOSTA — More signatures are needed on a petition to rename Forrest Street to Barack Obama Boulevard, according to a city official. 

The People’s Tribunal presented the petition at a recent Valdosta City Council meeting but City Manager Mark Barber said not all of the submitted 114 signatures are acceptable.

“There’s only about 40 signatures that we can take to our next verification process,” Barber said.

Barber and City Engineer Pat Collins met with the Rev. Floyd Rose, tribunal president, and George Boston Rhynes, tribunal member, late Tuesday afternoon to review the lack of signatures.

The Tribunal would like the road’s name to be changed as the group maintains it was named after Ku Klux Klan founder and Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest.

Opposers say it was named after Valdosta businessman Elbert Forrest. Research shows the street historically contained one “r” in its name, being written as “Forest Street,” for several decades.

With 284 parcels on Forrest Street, running from Martin Luther King Jr. Drive to Inner Perimeter Road, 171 signatures are needed before city leaders can consider the request, Barber said.

Some of the petition signatures were illegible, Barber said, and some residents only included either a first or last name rather than both.

“All they’ve got to do is go back in, go to (these addresses) we’ve highlighted and get the appropriate signature,” he said. “Trying to make it easy on the group as we possibly can.”

Barber confirmed the city will move forward with verifying the 40 usable signatures while tribunal members retrieve the others.

“We will continue with the petition but we’re really not happy, period, because I think they’re playing games with us … I think they’re trying to figure out a way not to do it,” Rose said.

Though the civil rights group will do what the City of Valdosta asks, Rose said he doesn’t like it.

“We’re not going to stop; somebody came over to my office telling me what might happen to me if we didn’t stop it, but I said, ‘I can’t do that, now.’ You never win when you stop,” Rose said.

The number of parcels for the petition were discovered with the use of a Geographic Information System, which identified all addresses from MLK Drive to Inner Perimeter, according to city officials.

There were several signatures received from an apartment complex that abuts Forrest Street. Barber said only one name per complex is acceptable. 

Rose said he was told only one name per apartment could be used. He said he doesn’t understand since the residents pay utilities and vote individually.

Only one signature per parcel can be accepted, Barber said.

“A parcel is a piece of land that a structure can be on or not be on,” he said. “There’s several parcels on Forrest Street that have not been developed.”

The 284 parcels do not equate to the number of residents as some of the homes are vacant, are single-family or have more than one resident, Barber said.

“We don’t count residents; we count parcels,” he said.

If a home has two owners, such as a husband and wife, only one or the other may sign, Barber said. The city will not accept both.

Once the Tribunal gets the necessary signatures, Barber said the petition would have to be submitted to the city engineering department.

Forrest Street also runs as an extension from Inner Perimeter to Bemiss Road in Lowndes County.

Rose said it’s his understanding that if the city renames Forrest Street within its limits, then the county limits would change, as well.

Barber said potential costs regarding this change are not yet available.

Information regarding a public hearing to consider the name change proposal for Forrest Street must be published in The Valdosta Daily Times three times starting 10 days prior to the meeting.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen with this, but you don’t stop; you can’t stop. If you do, you lose,” Rose said. 

Amanda Usher is a reporter at The Valdosta Daily Times. She can be contacted at 229-244-3400 ext.1274.