Listen to the city council talk about Tedd here:
TAMPA -- City council briefly took up the question of naming a stretch of Tampa roadway for longtime AM Tampa Bay co-host and Tampa radio legend Tedd Webb Thursday afternoon.
Councilman Guido Maniscalco said he and city staff would bring the issue back up in two weeks.
Webb passed away Tuesday, a few days after ending dialysis and relocating to a hospice.
A staff report points out that there are two processes for renaming a portion of a street after a well-known person. One involves a resolution from the Florida Legislature. In the other, the city can simply name a section of road after a person without legislative approval, presumably when roads controlled by the state DOT are not involved.
These honorary designations do not change the legal name of the roadway.
According to the staff report, the city has historically discouraged honorary street signs because they can be "a source of confusion thereby contributing to public safety issues." The report says there is no "consistent and equitable process" for considering and conferring an honorary street name.
In addition to Webb's, two other names are under consideration for honorary street namings. There is a proposal to name a part of East 23rd Avenue in front of Brown Memorial Church of God in Christ for Bishop Matthew Williams, who passed away November 27th. Another proposal would rename a portion of North 37th Street in front of Grace Mary Missionary Baptist Church for Elder Dr. Thomas Jefferson Reed, who died July 24th.
Not counting law enforcement officers, a dozen Tampa residents have had their names placed on roadways by the legislature, including C. Blythe Andrews, longtime publisher of the Florida Sentinel-Bulletin, former State Representative Elvin Martinez, former State Senator Helen Gordon Davis, and La Gaceta publisher Roland Manteiga.
Seven people have been honored with street names by the city: prison ministry leader Abe Brown, Carlos Fuentes, Frank Garcia, St. Lawrence Catholic Church founder Monsignor Laurence Higgins, African-American civil rights activist and community leader, Moses White, Tampa Tribune sports editor and local booster Tom McEwen, and Willie Black.
Webb would join this handful of individuals in one of Tampa's most elite circles of honor.
Photo: Tedd Webb