First gateway signs in place

The first of five pairs of ³gateway signs² to welcome visitors to Lincoln County has been erected on U.S. Highway 2 west of Troy.

The two concrete signs are located astride the highway at the top of Yaak Hill. For the time being, the signs are blank, but they will eventually include lettering notifying travelers that they are entering or leaving ³Kootenai River Country² along with the slogan picked for Troy, ³Lowest in Elevation, Highest in Recreation.²

³We¹re still trying to figure out how to do the lettering, and what size and what type,² said project organizer Debi Davidson.

The letters may be plastic or metal, Davidson said.

Troy city crews poured the concrete for the signs and their bases while county crews prepared the sites and installed the slabs on which the signs rest, Davidson said.

With the cost of lettering still a question mark, the signs came in at around half the projected $2,500 each, Davidson said.

Additional signs are planned for Montana Highway 56 south of Troy, U.S. Highway 93 north and south of Eureka, and U.S. Highway 2 south of Libby at the Thompson Chain of Lakes. Each will bear the ³Kootenai River Country² message plus a localized slogan.

The sign project grew out of the ³Dream It, Do It² economic development workshop held in April 2003. The county allocated $25,000 for the project and offered to prepare the sites for the signs using county road crews.