The Sumner City Council, minus an excused and absent Councilmember Cindi Hochstatter, unanimously passed a motion to change the name of 66th St. Ct. E. to Auto Lane — albeit not without much discussion.

Previously, 66th St. Ct. E. was changed to John Deere Lane, then changed back with the the sale of Sumner Tractor. Now, due to the addition of Jay Lee’s Honda of Sumner, as well as the adjacent Riverside Ford, council thought it was a good idea to change the name to Auto Lane.

Still, many of the members wanted to make sure there would be no confusion to either residents and out-of-towners.

“If we’ve got two names (for one street), I’ve got a concern,” Councilmember Steve Allsop said.

In the end, after a discussion that lasted nearly 20 minutes, council agreed to make the street sign read “Auto Lane” but also put a sign above it that states that it is on the 6600th block.

“We’re going to have to figure out a way to do that that doesn’t confuse people,” City Administrator John Doan said.

The public disclosure case involving three Puyallup officials will be heard in Pierce County Superior Court this Friday, Aug. 21.

City Councilmember John Knutsen has sued City Attorney Cheryl Carlson and City Manager Gary McLean, claiming they’ve withheld records he needs to do his job. Carlson and McLean have responded with several reasons to dismiss the lawsuit, namely that Knutsen’s hasn’t utilized council protocol to obtain the information, nor does he garner special privileges as a council member that the public doesn’t receive.

The case will be heard at 9 a.m. in Room 531 of the County-City Building, 930 Tacoma Ave. S. in downtown Tacoma. Judge Susan Serko is presiding over the case.

Results from the Pierce County Auditor’s office Wednesday morning show some definitive results in the three races for Puyallup City Council seats.

It’s fairly clear from initial results — which don’t include absentee ballots submitted at the last minute — that the final two candidates in each district have been selected for the Nov. 3 general election.

In District 1, incumbent George Dill and challenger Tony Aho were clearly the top-two vote getters. Dill had a 48-vote lead over Aho Monday morning, taking 49 percent of the vote to Aho’s 46 percent. Chris Weltzer was a distant third with 5 percent.

In District 2, incumbent Rick Hansen has a larger lead over his closest challenger, Chris Taylor. Hansen’s 135-vote lead translates to 49 percent of the vote, with Taylor getting 39 percent. Louise Workman figures to be out of the running, receiving 12 percent.

District 3 is seeing the widest margin between candidates as John Alexander notched 55 percent of the initial votes. That’s good enough for a 280-vote lead on Kent Boyle, who’s sitting at 30 percent. Nicolla Tebao garnered 15 percent of the vote.

The auditor’s office says it will have new figures available on a daily basis around 5 p.m. Elections aren’t certified until Sept. 2. Puyallup’s turnout was low as just 3,744 votes have been counted thus far.

More to come in The Herald’s Aug. 26 issue.