Greene man seeks to have road renamed
WAYNESBURG – A Greene County man committed to honoring a local Marine who died in Iraq last year presented the county commissioners Wednesday with petitions asking them to rename a road in the soldier’s memory. Since December, Challen Matthews of Waynesburg, a retired Air Force Reserve first sergeant, has been circulating petitions throughout the county to have Murtha Drive, the access road to the new Wal-Mart shopping complex in Franklin Township, renamed Lance Cpl. Steven Phillips Drive, after the 27-year-old Spraggs native who was killed in Iraq in February 2006.
Phillips, a lance corporal in an anti-tank unit with the 6th Marine Regiment in his third deployment overseas, died of injuries sustained in a Humvee rollover in al Qaim, Iraq. Phillips joined the Marines in 2003. He had been in Iraq about seven months and was one month short of returning home when he was killed.
With the community’s support, Matthews said he hoped to collect as many as 30 petitions containing 2,000 to 3,000 signatures and hand them to the county commissioners, who named the new road after U.S. Rep. John P. Murtha, D-Johnstown.
During the commissioners’ board meeting on Wednesday, Matthews submitted many of the petitions to the commissioners, adding that there were as many as 12 more petitions in the county that needed to be collected.
In all, he estimated that he has received 1,637 signatures so far from residents across the county supporting his initiative. He asked commissioners to keep him informed if and when any decisions were made regarding the request to change the name.
Commission Chairwoman Pam Snyder said the commissioners commended Matthews for his efforts and said they would take the petitions under advisement. She also said that since word got out about Matthews’ petition drive, the commissioners have been contacted by other residents expressing ideas about renaming roads after local military veterans.
Matthews said he was not pursuing this initiative for political reasons. “This isn’t about being against Rep. Murtha or running for any office or anything political,” he said. “This is about raising awareness for this local hero who paid the ultimate sacrifice for our country.”
Also attending the meeting was John Cox, the father of Spc. Gregory A. Cox, the first Greene County soldier killed in Iraq. Greg Cox, a Humvee gunner for the Army, died at age 21 on Sept. 27, 2004, when his armored vehicle rolled over after a civilian automobile ran the Humvee off the road in Balad, Iraq. His three-year enlistment was up in August 2004 but his stay was extended in Iraq.
The fallen soldier was immortalized last October with a 6-foot-tall memorial that bears his image, which now stands at the entrance to the Laurel Point Cemetery in Carmichaels.
John Cox offered a differing opinion at the meeting, suggesting that the road should be renamed to honor all local veterans who were killed while serving their country.
“We should honor all of them,” he said to the commissioners. “We should want to try to do what is best to honor all of their memories, not just one.”
Matthews said that although he would not object if the road was renamed to honor all fallen soldiers, he stressed that he hoped the petition could open the floodgates in renaming the streets throughout all of the county’s boroughs and townships in honor of those individual soldiers who died in service.
“Hopefully, this petition drive will raise some awareness and will help recognize those area fallen soldiers,” he said.