Should Lloyd be renamed Highland-on-Hudson? (with poll)

When asked, no one really ever says that they’re from Lloyd. The most likely response would be “Highland,” the town’s largest hamlet, which shares a name with both the school district and post office. Residents will sometimes share the tale — which may be apocryphal — that naming the town “Highland” was blocked in the postal service, because there was one in Sullivan County.

Since the advent of ZIP codes, it’s probably unnecessary for postmasters to impose their will upon community names, but if that happened, it would have been back in 1845. Members of the Lloyd Economic Development Commission see the peculiar dual identity of this town as problematic for marketing it to tourists and business owners, and recently pitched a name change to members of the town council: Highland-on-Hudson.

According to Town Supervisor Paul Hansut, “It’s really only the town government that’s called Lloyd.” There didn’t appear to be any marked resistance to the proposal among his fellows, Hansut said, but they also agreed that this is a decision which should be brought to the voters. Council members are expected to pass a resolution to get the question of a name change placed on the ballot this coming November, which will likely see slightly higher turnout because there’s a congressional race to decide as well.

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