Several southwest-area streets named on a whim

Naming streets used to be a lot simpler. It was one guy's job.

For a time in the 1960s, it was the job of Clark County planning aide Paul Gentile to name several small streets in the southwest area of the valley, including Gomer Road, and Pyle, Ford and Torino avenues.

Gomer Road and Pyle Avenue were named after the TV character of the same name. Gomer Pyle was a friendly gas station attendant in "The Andy Griffith Show" and a Marine Corps enlistee in "Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C."

"It was always tongue-in-cheek," said John Vornsand, former director of the Clark County Zoning Department, who worked with Gentile beginning in 1968. "He had a chuckle about them."

Gentile was a fan of those shows, Vornsand added.

Tarkanian Middle School, 5800 W. Pyle Ave., used to be between Gomer and Pyle. Principal Darren Sweikert said Gomer Road ran parallel to Pyle Avenue when the school opened six years ago. The section of Gomer Road between Jones Boulevard and Interstate 15 was renamed to match its eastside counterpart, Silverado Ranch Boulevard, once the I-15 overpass was constructed. The newest version of Gomer Road begins west of Rainbow Boulevard.

Gentile died within a few years after Vornsand joined the county, and the responsibility of naming streets went to planning aide Joyce Avery, Vornsand said.

Gentile was responsible for Ford and Torino avenues, named after the car produced from 1968 to 1976.

Vornsand said Gentile may have owned one or just liked the car.

The busiest street that Gentile named, that Vornsand is aware of, is Fort Apache Road. It was named after the 1948 Western film directed by John Ford, starring John Wayne and Henry Fonda.

Gentile was a John Wayne fan, Vornsand said.

There are probably many more streets that were inside jokes to Gentile, but Vornsand is not aware of them.

Starting in the 1970s, street names needed approval by the county planning department after a public hearing was held, and land and housing developers named streets in most cases.

Vornsand even has a street named after him by a developer in the northeast part of the valley.

Mark Hall-Patton, director of Clark County Museums, said developers used to have little to do with it.

"Developers used to bring in a blank map and say, 'Name them what you want,' " Hall-Patton said.

Street names also are vetted by a committee to make sure that proposed names are not too similar in spelling and sound with existing streets, Hall-Patton said.

The committee consists of representatives from the city, county, fire and police departments, the Postal Service and more.

"Eventually they were getting up to three-name streets," Hall-Patton said. "Like Blue Evening Mist Street. The reason for those is they couldn't come up with one- or two-word names in the last few decades. Street names were way too close together in terms of sound."

Contact View education reporter Jeff Mosier at jmosier@viewnews.com or 224-5524.