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 During the public participation portion of the meeting, the
council heard from Martin Blitstein of the Route 66 Association of
Illinois. Blitstein was there to voice concerns about the Tropics
sign which is owned by the city, and to offer to take the sign off
the city’s hands.
He noted that a locally published article had recently disclosed
that the sign was lying in a dump and broken into pieces. Martin had
photos of the sign and expressed concern for the sign being
discarded.
He told the council that the Route 66 Museum in Pontiac would be
willing to take the sign. Once they had it, they would do a
restoration on the best piece of the sign and put it on display at
their museum. He said the side of the sign that is now in several
pieces, the museum would do what it could to put it back together.
They would then give it to the Mill on Route 66 in Lincoln for the
future museum being planned there.
Blitstein said it was disturbing to see the sign in this condition.
He also noted that since the sign had been donated to the city there
had been several inaccuracies in stories presented by former Mayor
Keith Snyder.
 Blitstein said Snyder had stated that the sign was given to the city
by the purchasers of the old Tropics Restaurant. He said that was
not true. The sign had been given to the city by the former owners
of the restaurant at the time the building sold.
[Contrary to
what Blitstein believed the mayor had said, LDN ran an announcement
provided by Mayor Keith Snyder and Logan County Tourism Chairman Tom
O’Donohue on April 21, 2014 which stated the sign was donated by the
sellers.]
http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2014/Apr/21/
Another misunderstanding concerned the trailer the sign was being
held and transported on.
Blitstein also said the sign had been mounted on a trailer that
belonged to the city. He said that later, people lied and said the
trailer was rented by the city for the hauling of the sign and that
the sign had to be taken off the trailer so it could be returned to
the owner.
Blitstein said that at the Route 66 Banquet in Lincoln last fall he
had spoken to the person from the city who was there with the sign.
He commented to the person that the sign was sitting on a nice
trailer and the person responded, “Oh yeah, it’s one of ours that
was just laying around.”
After Blitstein finished speaking, Lincoln Street Superintendent
Walt Landers clarified that the trailer the Tropics sign was moved
on did not belong to the city of Lincoln, and yes, it had to be
returned to the owner.
Landers also said that his crews had carefully disassembled the sign
and had carefully laid the pieces out. He said all the pieces were
there.
Blitstein was there to make an offer. He told the council that if
they gave the sign to the Pontiac Museum, it would be restored as
best as possible and displayed in Pontiac with acknowledgement that
it came from Lincoln.
He said the Pontiac Museum would keep the original part that is
still intact. The part that is in pieces would be put back together
and brought back to Lincoln and given to the Mill.
Blitstein said the Association would bring in a neon expert from
Missouri to determine what could be done to fix the sign. The museum
would do fundraisers to get the money they needed and restore the
sign as best they could. He noted that they might not be able to
restore the neon, but they could paint it and put spotlights on it.
 He told the city that this was going to have a negative effect on
Route 66 tourism in Lincoln. “You can’t do this. When these pictures
go viral tomorrow in the Route 66 News because it was in a newspaper
here that started it. Do you have any idea the thing you just did
putting it in a landfill? There will be people who won’t come to
this town and stay in a motel, won’t eat, won’t shop, no gas, and I
guarantee you that will happen.”
When Blitstein finished, Alderman Jonie Tibbs suggested that the
council put a motion on the agenda to go along with Blitstein
suggestion. She noted to the council that the city does want to do
something with the sign, but the big issue is money. She said she
didn’t know where the city was going to get the dollars needed to
restore the sign.
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Alderman Steve Parrott asked Blitstein if he knew what the
cost of restoration could be. Blitstein couldn’t answer the
question, but told Parrott “the money part is easy.” Blitstein
said online fundraisers could be done and that the interest in
preserving Route 66 artifacts would draw lots of interest.
Blitstein had been concerned that the sign was lying down and
said that rain water would ruin what is left of the sign.
Alderman Michelle Bauer said she understood that concern and that,
yes, the sign should possibly be stood up. But the main thing she
tried to explain to Blitstein, was that the sign had by no means
been thrown away.
She said that the landfill is the city owned and operated site. The
sign was taken there because there is no space large enough for it
in any of the city buildings. She also noted that the sign was not
broken into pieces. The sign had been carefully disassembled because
the inside of the sign needed to be cleaned out of all the bird
waste that was inside it.
Bauer said, “It is being stored where we have storage. But it is not
in the landfill for the purposes of being landfill property. There
is a clarification there makes me very nervous as a citizen of
Lincoln and as a person who is very good friends with the family
that owned the Tropics. We, sitting up here as aldermen, would never
put a piece of history in a landfill to fill land.” She also noted
she was present when the sign was taken down, and she knew it was
not in good shape then. She went on to say, that again, because of
the money involved, Blitstein’s offer was worth considering.
City Administrator Clay Johnson added that because the bird waste
had been removed, the sign was possibly in better shape now than
when the city took ownership of it. He also noted that the sign is
not lying flat on the ground; he said it was propped up to a certain
degree.
Alderman Jeff Hoinacki asked if there were any stipulations when the
sign was given to the city that it had to stay in Lincoln. He was
told there was not.
 As the council continued discussing this, it was decided that they
were not prepared to put anything on the next voting session agenda.
They wanted to discuss the issue further at the next Workshop on
April 14th.
Logan County Alliance Executive Director Andi Hake was in the
council chambers and asked to be recognized. She said that as a
representative of the LCA and the Logan County Tourism Bureau she
wanted to ask that the Tourism Bureau be included in conversations
about the sign.
She said, “I can’t say that we have the funds to completely repair
it (the sign). But we would certainly like to maintain that asset in
Logan County and help be a part of the solution because it is
valuable to our community.”
In a one-on-one conversation with Landers Tuesday night after the
council meeting, he explained more of what had happened.
Landers said the sign posed a health hazard because of the bird
waste lodged inside. Because the sign was being taken out in public,
the problem had to be addressed. He also noted that it was a nasty
job, but necessary, and that with the amount of waste found inside,
the damage from that would have done more harm over time than the
sign getting wet at the landfill.
[Nila Smith]
Past related articles:
City to preserve
treasured Tropics landmark sign
City to preserve treasured Tropics landmark
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