Stowe Street gets temporary new name, ‘Shepeluk Way’

July 23, 2022  |  By Lisa Scagliotti 

Municipal Manager Bill Shepeluk and his wife Ingrid attend the short ceremony to add an honorary name to Stowe Street with their grandchildren on July 20. Photo by Gordon Miller

Many of the town offices staff took a short break on Wednesday afternoon for a special ceremony at the intersection of Main and Stowe streets.

Keen-eyed passers by may notice a new green-and-white street sign perched above the sidewalk on a lamppost near Champlain Farms. 

It declares an additional name for the street: “Shepeluk Way” with the qualifier “Honorary.” 

The gesture is a nod to Municipal Manager Bill Shepeluk who is retiring at the end of 2022 after more than 34 years in his position as the town’s top administrator. 

In unveiling the sign, Public Works Director Bill Woodruff announced that this was believed to be the first time in the town’s 250-plus years of history that the Waterbury Select Board has officially designated a street to be temporarily named in honor of a distinguished citizen. 

“The first-ever honorary street name will bear the name of William Shepeluk

Waterbury’s longtime Municipal Manager, whose dedication, commitment and

engagement in the Waterbury community are beyond compare,” Woodruff said.  

Public Works Director Bill Woodruff unveils the new sign. Photo by Gordon Miller

Elected officials from the select board, the Edward Farrar Utility District, town staff and Shepeluk’s family members including is wife, Ingrid, and two young grandchildren gathered for the unveiling. 

The select board chose the location as a fitting spot for the recognition as it hangs along recently reconstructed Main Street, a major public infrastructure project that Shepeluk oversaw.

Woodruff pointed out that Shepeluk, who lives in Waterbury, also starts many workdays with a stop at K.C.’s Bagels nearby, where he visits with various business people, acquaintances and friends. 

Woodruff said that the “renaming” is temporary. Staff plan to remove the sign to give to Shepeluk when he retires. 

“No changes of addresses are needed for anyone along Stowe Street,” Woodruff said, jokingly adding that it was “purely coincidental” that the Stowe Street resurfacing project began two days later.