Traffic moves along Gleason Avenue near St. Albert Catholic Schools on Jan. 21. On Monday, the Council Bluffs City Council voted on a resolution for the commemorative name change of Gleason Avenue to Sgt. Thomas E. Houser Way, in honor of the late Council Bluffs Marine and St. Albert alumnus who died while serving in Iraq in 2005.
M.E. Ward, mother of the late Thomas Houser, who was killed while serving in Iraq in 2005, stands on Gleason Avenue down the hill from St. Albert Catholic Schools on Thursday. On Monday, the Council Bluffs City Council is approved a resolution for a commemorative name change of Gleason Avenue to Sgt. Thomas E. Houser Way.
Traffic moves along Gleason Avenue near St. Albert Catholic Schools on Wednesday. On Monday, the Council Bluffs City Council is voting on a resolution that with passage will result in the commemorative name change of Gleason Avenue to Sgt. Thomas E. Houser Way, in honor of the late Council Bluffs Marine and St. Albert alumnus who died while serving in Iraq in 2005.
As expected, Monday night the Council Bluffs City Council voted to approve a commemorative street renaming of Gleason Avenue to honor the late Sgt. Tom Houser.
The council voted 4-0, with Councilman Mike Wolf abstaining because he lives on Gleason Avenue.
Signs will be placed at the intersections of McPherson and Gleason Avenues, and Bonham Street and Gleason Avenue commemorating Sgt. Thomas E. Houser Way, according to information from the Council Bluffs Public Works Department.
Councilman Chad Hannan said the commemorative street signs will be placed in the coming months and an unveiling will be planned.
Houser, a 2000 St. Albert High School graduate, joined the Marine Corps shortly after graduation. On Jan. 3, 2005, the Bluffs native was killed serving in Amiriya, Iraq, while assigned to the 2nd Force Reconnaissance 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
“There’s a lot of people who still care a lot,” Houser’s mother, M.E. Ward, told the Nonpareil last week. “And it’s not just his close friends and St. Albert, it’s a community that cares — it’s Council Bluffs. They want to keep his memory alive and his legacy intact. It’s very important to have that hope and that feel of freedom and know that there’s someone out there who helped to do that.”
Houser
