The new government building in Fort Wayne, Indiana, may soon be named after the city’s longest serving mayor; Harry Baals.
In response to an online poll, 11,330 people voted to name the new building the “Harry Baals Government Center.”
Baals served from 1934-1947 for three consecutive terms, and again from 1951-1954 for a fourth term.
The mayor pronounced his last name “balls,” but descendents have amended the pronunciation to “bales.”
Regardless, Deputy Mayor Beth Malloy says the building won’t be named after Baals.
“We love Fort Wayne, too,” she tells the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette. “We’re not going to make any decisions that look bad.”
Fortunately, Harry Baals Drive, a street in Fort Wayne, will remain.
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