GREENFIELD — Two roads on the campus of the new Hancock County Jail will be named for beloved county lawmen after the county commissioners endorsed a recommendation from the county sheriff.
The road leading to the new jail building will be named after former Hancock County Sheriff Malcolm Grass. The first cross street at the site will bear the name of Nick Gulling, another former county sheriff who served four terms.
Both men are credited with helping modernize the sheriff’s department are were well-respected in the community. Grass died in the line of duty when he was shot and killed in 1986 while assisting the FBI in an extortion investigation. Gulling died earlier this year.
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The street names were approved by the Hancock County Commissioners at a meeting Tuesday, Aug. 4, following a suggestion from current Sheriff Brad Burkhart.
The street named for Grass will be the main road and entry point onto the jail campus from U.S. 40 east of Greenfield. If further development occurs, it could be extended in a horseshoe shape to connect back to the highway. The one named for Gulling will be a smaller connected roadway providing access to other buildings on the campus, which will also house a new sheriff’s administration building.
County engineer Gary Pool said he usually prefers that streets be numbered rather than named, following the principle that street designations be “simple, legible and memorable.” If a street is named after a person, Pool said, he requests that it be someone who is deceased and who either achieved something significant or made a major contribution to Hancock County.
Grass and Gulling, he said, meet those criteria.
Pool did ask the commissioners to consider using abbreviated versions of the names on the street signs, since signs with longer names have a tendency to topple in the wind. Street signs are generally printed with six-inch lettering and are more unstable the longer they are.
“People don’t realize how big some of these street signs can get,” Pool said.
However, the commissioners said they wanted to honor the former sheriffs by using their full names.
The commissioners decided on naming the main street Malcolm Grass Way. They left the designation for the other street up to the highway department, saying it could be chosen once the plan for the cross street is finalized. It will also contain Gulling’s full name, and the designation will likely be Nick Gulling Street, Road or Court.
Pool said since the streets are contained within the jail site, longer names will not be a big problem. If the signs fall, he said, the highway department will simply put them back up.