Tim Ryan tryan@wolfrivermedia.com
Contributed Image This is one of four designs currently under consideration for a gateway sign that would be located at Airport Drive and County Road B. Others can be viewed at www.cityofshawano.com and the public is welcome to vote for their preference.
City officials are considering several designs for a gateway sign that would welcome motorists into Shawano and would be installed as part of road improvements planned for Airport Drive.
The public can also chime in with its preferences out of the four designs currently being considered on the city’s web site, www.cityofshawano.com.
The Wisconsin Department of Transportation plans on widening and resurfacing Airport Drive — which is also state Highway 47 — from state Highway 22 to state Highway 29.
That was expected to happen as soon as spring of next year, but could be delayed until the fall or spring of 2017 because of budget issues at the DOT. A number of DOT projects in the state were recently pushed back.
Public Works Coordinator Eddie Sheppard said Thursday he was waiting for confirmation from the DOT on whether the Airport Drive project is still on for this spring or is being postponed.
As part of the Airport Drive project, the city was awarded about $17,000 to do aesthetic improvements.
Sheppard recently told the Common Council that the Shawano Field Committee eventually recommended a gateway sign at the Airport Drive/County Road B intersection.
It would be located on the northeast corner, across from the sign marking the industrial park.
“It really gives it a presence as you’re coming into town,” Sheppard said.
The decision to go with a sign was reached after the field committee discussed other options, including decorative plantings within the median, or pine trees that could be decorated in the winter.
Sheppard said the DOT objected to those ideas because of interference with sight lines in the intersection.
“They were not in favor of dressing up the median,” he said.