2 NAMES FOR AVENUE M? OFFICIALS MAY ADD 'COLUMBIA WAY'.

Byline: Jim Skeen Staff Writer

PALMDALE - Local officials are considering double-naming Avenue M to honor the seven astronauts killed in the Columbia space shuttle accident on Feb. 1.

Palmdale, Lancaster and Los Angeles County officials are considering designating the street as ``Columbia Way/Avenue M'' from 90th Street West to 50th Street East. They would keep Avenue M as part of the name to spare residents and businesses along the street the bother and expense of changing addresses.

``It will be co-named, not renamed,'' said Palmdale Mayor Pro Tem Mike Dispenza. ``Any business can still use its same address because it'll be co-named.''

A public hearing on the proposed co-naming will be held at the Palmdale City Council meeting at 6 p.m. today at Palmdale Council Chambers, 38300 Sierra Highway. The Lancaster City Council was scheduled to vote Tuesday night on the proposal.

Avenue M runs through all three jurisdictions. Inside Palmdale, it passes Site 1 at Plant 42, the shuttle-assembly complex where all of the orbiters were built.

The co-naming is being considered at the request of county Supervisor Mike Antonovich, who suggested the change in Avenue M's name. Similarly, 10th Street East was renamed in Lancaster after the Challenger accident.

Lancaster and county officials renamed 10th Street East in 1986 for the ill-fated Challenger. Shuttles were trucked along the street in the late 1970s and 1980s from their assembly site at Plant 42 out to Edwards Air Force Base.

A suggestion had surfaced earlier in the 1980s to change 10th Street East's name to Space Shuttle Way, but residents and business owners along the street objected to changing their addresses. That objection disappeared after Challenger was destroyed in an explosion caused by a defective rocket engine seal, killing its seven astronauts.

Avenue M intersects with Challenger Way in front of the Air Force Plant 42 assembly complex where the space shuttles were built.