Harry Baals Government Center 'Not Going to Happen'

by Jordan Yerman | February 9, 2011 at 01:06 pm

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Harry Baals Snubbed in Building Vote Due to Mispronounced Name

Harry Baals (pronounced "Harry Bales", and not "Harry Balls") will likely not get his name attached to the new city-county building in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Harry Baals is a former mayor of Fort Wayne, and his name continues to inspire juvenile humor. These are the same people who would find San Diego politician Dick Rider's name funny, too.

Visitors to the Fort Wayne voting page will see that Harry Baals is destroying the competition by more than 7,000 votes, but Deputy Mayor Beth Malloy said that just winning the popular vote wasn't enough, and expressed concern that calling the new building the Harry Baals Government Center would "look bad".

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Harry Baals' son acknowledges the amount of crap he got at school, while also pointing out that his dad was a popular mayor:

"Harry served four terms and was a wonderful mayor. I don't know what the problem is," he said. "I understand people are going to poke fun at it. That's OK. I've lived with that name for 51 years now and I've gotten through it. I think everybody else can, too."