Patriotic banner program OK'd here

Honoring local military veterans is the focus of a new patriotic banner program for the Holton community, a program that received the blessing of the Holton City Commission on Monday.

During the commission’s meeting that night, commissioners unanimously approved a proposal from Holton Recorder editor and publisher David Powls to co-sponsor a “Holton Remembers” banner program to honor local veterans, with banners to be displayed on city light poles around Holton’s Town Square and along the city’s “main thoroughfares” between Memorial Day and Independence Day.

The banner program, Powls noted, would be similar to programs honoring veterans in Emporia, Burlington, Iola and Garnett, the latter city putting up 320 banners in a six-year period. Like Garnett’s banner program, Holton’s program would involve the hanging of vinyl banners three feet wide and five feet high that could be produced locally, he said.

“It’s turned into a tourist attraction,” Powls said of other cities’ banner programs. “People come to town to see their family members on the banners, so it’s also like a homecoming and it does have a wide appeal.”

The banners would be purchased by veterans’ family members and friends, along with brackets to hang the banners from city light poles, so there would be no cost to the city apart from “in-kind labor” used in putting the banners up and taking them down, Powls said.

The banners would be hung prior to Memorial Day and then taken down sometime after Independence Day, he said, noting that the banners are expected to last about eight years. Marketing Concepts of Holton has been contacted about possibly producing the banners, he added.

Powls estimated that the banners would cost about $250 each — $160 for the banner and $90 for the hanging brackets, based on the cost in other communities. He also noted that the banner program would seek to be an affiliate of the Jackson County Community Foundation, making all donations to the program for banners and maintenance tax-deductible.

Area veterans have also voiced support for the banner program, including Les Crawshaw, commander of Holton Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 1367, who told commissioners he believed the program “could turn into a pretty big thing pretty fast.” Crawshaw and local veteran Mike Wilson displayed an example of a banner from Garnett’s program for commissioners to see.

Commissioners agreed with Crawshaw’s statement, and Mike Meerpohl’s motion to have the city be a co-sponsor of the banner program was seconded by Marilyn Watkins and approved on a 5-0 vote.

More information about the banner program and how to purchase banners will be published as it becomes available.