CALIFORNIA IN BRIEF : SACRAMENTO : City Seeks Manhole by Another Name

City public works officials are looking for a good non-sexist term for “manholes.” So far, proposed alternatives for those holes in streets leading to sewers and utilities have been uninspiring--for example, “person-access chamber.” Thomas Finley, engineering division manager for the Sacramento Public Works Department, is heading up the search with a “Manhole Terminology Change Contest.” First prize: an all-expense-paid trip to the Pinkerton Foundry in Lodi to see the new name, or its acronym, cast in a cover plate. “I honestly don’t know if we’ll come up with anything of value,” Finley told the Sacramento Union. “Like any traditional name, it becomes hard to think of using another name. Nothing sounds right.” Although Mayor Anne Rudin, who had circled the word “manhole” on several reports, did not order the change, she praised the department for becoming “sensitized to language.”