If this was “Jeopardy,” someone in Kennett Township could choose “Name That Stream” for $50.
That $50 is the application fee to name an unnamed stream in the township. It’s refundable if the name is rejected.
The Kennett Township supervisors approved guidelines at Wednesday’s meeting allowing residents to “name heretofore unnamed naturally running year-round streams of water lying in whole or in part in their respective properties,” according to the resolution that established those guidelines.
“There are about 60,000 streams in Pennsylvania that remain unnamed,” said Supervisors’ Chairman Geoffrey Gamble. “We don’t have a great many of these streams in Kennett Township but we have a few.”
The application fee covers the cost of the U.S. government marking the GPS coordinates of the stream and will be refunded if the proposed name is not accepted, Gamble added. The actual naming of the stream is free.
But before you suggest naming one of those streams after a loved one, or creating an obscene name, make sure you read the guidelines.
“Consider a name already in common usage for the stream,” reads one of the guidelines. “Consider a name that is distinctive and suggested by local history, Native American folklore, topography, the name of an existing place, or natural life.”
The resolution suggests using simple, two-word names, avoiding names already used for streams in the county, avoiding names of “living or recently deceased” people, and avoiding “obscene or otherwise absurd” names.
Kennett Township Manager Eden Ratliff said there are current township residents for whom this resolution would be happy news.
“We have residents who are excited about this,” Ratliff said. “If it’s an enhancement to their neighborhood, we want to get this done.”
To read the full resolution, go here.
About Monica Fragale
Monica Thompson Fragale is a freelance reporter who spent her life dreaming of being in the newspaper business. That dream came true after college when she started working at The Kennett Paper and, years later The Reporter newspaper in Lansdale and other dailies. She turned to non-profit work after her first daughter was born and spent the next 13 years in that field. But while you can take the girl out of journalism, you can’t take journalism out of the girl. Offers to freelance sparked the writing bug again started her fingers happily tapping away on the keyboard. Monica lives with her husband and two children in Kennett Square.
