Hillsboro, Tabor to be posted on roadside signs
By GRANT OVERSTAKE
Star-Journal
Mayor Delores Dalke said she'd lost all hope that Hillsboro would ever appear on one of those big green signs posted along Interstate I-135.
After 25 years of wheel spinning in Topeka, she was resigned that such an accomplishment was too much to expect for this mighty, little town.
So then, imagine Dalke's delight Sept. 1 when she received word from state highway officials that signs pointing motorists toward Hillsboro and Tabor College will soon be erected along the interstate and other state roads in Marion County.
Remember the hilarious movie scene when the character played by comic Steve Martin discovered to his amazement that his name had been printed in the phone book?
"The new phone book's here! The new phone book's here! This is the kind of spontaneous publicity I need! My name in print! That really makes me somebody! Things are going to start happening for me now!"
Of course, Dalke's delirium was properly mayoral and dignified, but that's how she felt when she heard about Hillsboro's new signs.
"If you'd lived here for the last half of your life, you'd say this was unbelievable," Dalke said. "This is really cool because these are official highway signs that tell people that we're here."
According to a proposal sent to the city from the Kansas Department of Transportation, Bureau of Traffic Engineering, motorists going north or south on I-135 near the junction of U.S.-56 (near McPherson) soon will see signs reading: Hillsboro, Tabor College, via 56 east, Exit 60.
All told, there will be 10 new signs; the two on I-135, and eight more on U.S.-56, K-86, and U.S.-77.
"We've worked on this so long, I was to the point where I thought it would never happen," Dalke said. "(70th District Rep.) Don Dahl is the one who saw to it that this happened. He deserves all the credit."
Dalke added, "This is a project that's been worked on here for 25 years in Hillsboro, but it took someone with Don Dahl's stature in order to make it happen."
When asked how Dahl was able to arrange for so many signs to point toward his hometown, Dalke said it would take a political roadmap to figure it out.
"It took his position on top in order to get people to listen," she said. "But that's the way politics works. It's a story you'll have to get from him, but it's worth finding out about."
[Rep. Dahl did not return our phone call before deadline].
In other business,
— After hearing Hillsboro Community Medical Center director Mike Ryan say the hospital's computer server had been crashing repeatedly and was "on life support," the council approved his request to buy a new server for $24,736.07.
The 144 gigabyte computer network will be purchased from Heartland Technology Solutions of Wichita.
"You can't go down to your neighborhood computer store and by a network like this," Ryan said.
— The council accepted the low bid from Middlecreek Corp., Peabody, in the amount of $16,400 to demolish, remove, and fill the former city pool in Memorial Park.
