Well folks, it looks like it’s not going to happen.
Fort Wayne’s new government center is NOT going to be named after one of the most prominent, important, and longest-tenured government officials the city has ever known. I’m speaking, of course, of 4 term mayor Harry Baals.
First off, don’t open your Internet poll to write-ins if you don’t intend to honor the winner. The Harry Baals Government Center has more than 3 times as many votes as its nearest competitor. And it’s not like people were writing in Superman or something, Harry Baals is a legitimate, historical, government figure in Fort Wayne. I think the city should have to honor the poll. The man died in office, can’t you give him one building?
City officials said the name is embarrassing, and they “probably” won’t use it. So you’re saying there’s a chance!
I like how it mentions his descendants changed the pronunciation of the name from “Balls” to “Bales”. They all got together and decided, “We must make sure nobody can ever name their kid Harry Baals again!”
Link via Nate “Bacon” Halbach.
Even Jimmy Kimmel weighed in on this important issue:
Shane Halbach 
The bigger story is that Fort Wayne has an online voting site
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Damn puritanical heritage; this could have been fun!
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Baal is a god mentioned something like 60 times in the Bible. I’ve read and/or heard it as “bale,” and dictionary.com even pronounces it as “bale” (actually bey-uhl), so I’m really surprised that this guy (and apparently his family) pronounced it as “ball.”
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