Two freeway signs designating I-5 through San Clemente as the "Officer Richard T. Steed Memorial Highway" were dedicated Friday afternoon in a ceremony attended by state Assemblywoman Diane Harkey, San Clemente city officials and former San Clemente Police Department personnel.
The celebration was at Adele's at the San Clemente Inn, near a Steed sign along the northbound I-5 just south of Avenida Magdalena. The sign on the southbound side is just south of Camino de la Estrella.
Harkey, R-Dana Point, led a bill through the California Legislature in 2011 to designate San Clemente's stretch of I-5 in memory of Steed, the only officer in the now-defunct San Clemente Police Department to be killed in the line of duty. He was shot to death Nov. 29, 1978, while responding to a call for help.
Local fundraising provided the $5,000 the California Department of Transportation needed to create and install the signs.