Have you noticed the entryway sign on Highway 281 is missing?
It was removed in June to make way for a new sign coming in August. If you travel Highway 281 regularly, you will notice dirt work occurring soon as a new berm is put in place.
Grand Island currently has three entryway sign locations — Highway 281, East Highway 30 and the airport. All three of these signs will be replaced. The Highway 281 sign is the first and the new sign will be in place in time for the State Fair and Husker Harvest Days.
The original sign at Highway 281 was put in place in 1995. If that feels like ions ago, that is because it pretty much was. Consider that eBay was founded that same year. Google Maps and iPhones did not exist yet. The aged sign was to last 10 years and it has been 25 years.
The new entryway sign process has proved complicated and time consuming. An initial committee was formed in 2015. Their first discussions were centered around placement options — do you keep the signs where they currently are or do you move them? And, what about a new sign for South Locust — where should it be? The group made some progress before stalling out and taking a break.
A new committee was formed in 2019 led by Grow Grand Island to pick up where the former committee left off. Instead of focusing on where, they were able to focus on what the sign should look like. Mayor Roger Steele offered a challenge: Create a sign design that speaks to our progressiveness, have it reflect our community as “grand,” and the sign should not look like every other one and should set the tone for the future.
The committee embraced the challenge and began looking at innovative sign designs. After months of tedious dialog and seeking input on prototypes the committee “hit a wall.” Lack of agreement on an artistic feature of the sign design along with obstacles associated with the new placement of a sign on South Locust proved exhausting and seemingly endless.
Instead of calling it quits, the committee decided to move forward with what was doable and agreeable. This meant eliminating the artistic feature from the sign design and tabling the South Locust sign for the time being.
The project was formally approved in March with funding provided by Grow Grand Island’s allocation of Food and Beverage tax proceeds. The Highway 281 sign will be replaced first, followed by the East Highway 30 and airport signs shortly thereafter.
So, what does the sign look like? Be watching for an official unveiling via GITV and The Independent. After 25 years, it will be refreshing to have something new in place to usher one’s arrival to Grand Island.
Tonja Brown is the implementation chair for Grow Grand Island Area Partnership. Grow Grand Island was established as a partnership involving the city, county, Chamber of Commerce, Convention and Visitors Bureau, and Economic Development Corp. to develop and implement an ongoing, dynamic strategic plan to guide community growth and prosperity.
