People who live on Texas Lane also are expected to receive a new address soon.

A letter mailed Friday notified residents living on these streets of the pending name changes, said Richard Macchi, Bell County engineer.

The reason for the change is simple - Easy Street and Texas Lane are the most stolen street signs in the county.

Easy Street’s sign has been replaced seven times in the past two years, and since 2004 Texas Lane’s has been replaced 13 times.

“I guess they (the sign thieves) think it’s cool,” said Justin Roberts, a sign maintenance technician with the Bell County Road Department’s sign crew. “I don’t see the point in it.”

Roberts said he spends most of his workdays re-

placing damaged or stolen signs.

Both Easy Street and Texas Lane are private roads. It is the county’s policy to put up signs on private roads lined by at least three houses.

“Generally we leave it up to the people who live on the road to name it,” Macchi said. “We discourage names like Easy Street and Texas Lane up-front.”

Macchi said his department had reservations about Easy Street from the beginning but he has been somewhat surprised at the popularity of Texas Lane.

“Evidently Texas Lane is a real hot number these days, more so than Easy Street,” Macchi said. “Some signs are just more appealing than others.”

Sign theft costs Bell County taxpayers tens of thousands of dollars a year.

Macchi says the county spends between $60,000 and $70,000 a year replacing signs.

“A lot of kids want stop or yield signs in their bedroom,” Macchi said.

To replace a sign, pole and anchor costs about $60, not including the time Roberts or others spend on the replacement.

Texas Lane is off FM 1123 near Holland, and Easy Street is off Stillman Valley Road between Youngsport and Florence.

Macchi said he has not received a response to his letter yet and doesn’t know what the new names of the streets will be.

“I went by Texas Lane yesterday, and it was still up,” Roberts said on Tuesday as he put up a new flooding sign at a low-water crossing on the outskirts of Temple.

The old sign had graffiti on it.

Roberts talked about how the new reflective sign he was installing was engineered so that it would maintain its reflective properties for five to seven years.

“I don’t think any (of the signs) will last that long,” he said, “because people tear them up.”

promer@temple-telegram.com