Mayors: It's Hassert - not Hastert - Boulevard

The emails started as a trickle when former U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert was first questioned about money issues that were raising eyebrows.

But as the eventual charges against Hastert began to take shape - culminating this week with a 15-month prison sentence from a federal judge who called him a "serial child molester" - the emails and phone calls and Facebook posts increased in intensity and vitriol.

"They'd say, 'Why do you have a street named for this ...,'" Bolingbrook Mayor Roger Claar said Friday. "I won't go into the words, but it was general disgust."

Claar wasn't the only one getting complaints. So was Naperville Mayor Steve Chirico.

"We did receive a fair amount of emails with people who were confused," Chirico said.

After all this, residents would ask, how in the world could you still have a street named after Dennis Hastert?

The short answer, of course, is they don't. The street in question is actually called Hassert Boulevard.

Named in 2003, it runs for several miles in parts of Bolingbrook and Naperville and it honors the Hassert family, whose members have lived in Will County since the 1860s and include Brent Hassert, a Plainfield resident and former state representative, along with several other elected officials and area teachers.

Hastert. Hassert. Two different names. Two different families.

But for too many people who live in the two towns or are just passing through, the distinction isn't clear.

"There's a bit of confusion, so people were concerned," Chirico said. "Understandable, I guess, when you look at the similarity in the names."

Claar and Chirico said they tried to respond by writing emails to those who filed complaints. But Claar said he eventually got overwhelmed, so this week his village took action by posting two signs along Hassert Boulevard - with plans for three more - that say: "Hassert Blvd. Is Named After The Hassert Family NOT Dennis Hastert The Former Speaker."

He also directed the village's website to include a similar disclaimer in large print ("when you flip to our Web page I wanted it there immediately") and has posted a picture of the sign on the village's Facebook page.

Claar says he doesn't find anything funny about people confusing the two names.

"It's not a joke at all," he said. "The charges and conviction are very serious."

Claar said he doesn't expect the problem to go away anytime soon, although Chirico said he thinks word is beginning to get out about the true people behind the boulevard's name.

Still, there likely will be another spurt of outrage when Hastert is sent to prison and still another when he's released after his 15-month sentence.

Claar said there are no plans to rename the street.

It's dead wrong, he said, to punish the Hassert family because some people misread the signs and "take disrespect meant for someone else and put it on another family."

Brent Hassert said Friday he grew up next to the White Fence Farm restaurant, which was owned by Dennis Hastert's uncle Bob, and people frequently confused the two family names.

When both he and Hastert were serving in government, they occasionally would get each other's calls and every once in a while people would call him Denny.

He said the recent confusion has been uncomfortable, but he hopes heightened media interest and Claar's street sign education campaign will bring most of it to an end.

Hassert said he's much more concerned with his friend, Scott Cross, who came forward this week as one of the victims of Hastert's abuse.

"This is a minor problem compared to the horrible things he had to endure and go through," Hassert said.

For now, Claar said the new street signs providing the disclaimer will remain prominently posted.

"I'm in (office) for at least another year," he said. "They'll stay up at least until then."