At events, Cliff Hudson often introduces himself as the pastor at Silverdale — the Presbyterian church on Bonny Oaks Drive, he clarifies, and not the jail.
“It usually gets a chuckle,” he said in a phone call.
Previously the name of one of Hamilton County’s early communities, “Silverdale” is now attached to two churches, a cemetery and the county detention center. Amid a multimillion-dollar renovation to the facility, Hamilton County commissioners will vote Wednesday on whether to change the name from “Silverdale Detention Center” to “The Hamilton County Jail and Detention Center.”
“What’s in a name?” Commissioner Lee Helton, R-East Brainerd, who heads the board’s facilities committee, said during a commission meeting last week. “Sometimes quite a bit. For far too long, the name Silverdale in our community has been associated with a poorly run corporate jail facility.”
Thanks to current and former county leaders, he said, that is changing.