City unveils new Pocatello entrance sign
Published at | Updated at
POCATELLO — City officials and community members gathered Tuesday to celebrate the Gate City’s latest feature — a newly installed entrance sign.
Pocatello Mayor Brian Blad unveiled the new monument during a ribbon cutting ceremony.
The new sign welcomes travelers entering the city on South 5th Avenue. During the day, they’ll see a gray stainless steel sign with a strong, simple font that simply reads “Pocatello” above a bed of lava rocks. At night, they’ll see the sign lit up.
Kirk Lepchenske, chairman for the City Entrances Committee of Portneuf Valley Partners, said the sign is, “something that’s gonna last for a long time and hopefully it’ll stay looking good for many, many years to come.”
The new sign was designed with the intention of being timeless, which is why it has such a simple design.
Lepchenske said putting this welcome sign together was an effort that joined members of the community and city workers.
“There’s so many people willing to chip in and help and enjoy doing it and everybody’s happy to be a part of it,” he said.
The entrance committee started working on new signage in 2020 as part of an effort to clean up the city entrances. The committee started with the entrance sign on South 5th Avenue, and the organization will start work on other entrance signs now that this one is completed.
Multiple people worked on the design and once the Pocatello City Council approved the design for the project, Hannah Sanger, President of the Board of Portneuf Valley Partners, said they moved forward looking for grant money. Ultimately, the committee received funds from the Idaho Community Foundation as well as community donations.
As the project progressed, multiple city departments joined in to offer assistance. The Pocatello Street Department built the letters for the sign in-house and set up the sign’s lighting. The Parks and Recreation Department did the landscaping.
During the ribbon cutting, Public Works Deputy Director Tom Kirkman said he was proud to see the culmination of all the hard work of his employees.
“I was most proud (of) being able to connect everybody together and just try and push this thing forward,” Kirkman said. “We had the street department, sanitation department, fleet services, everybody helping out on this project to try and get it accomplished.”
Lepchenske was honored to see the community and city officials who worked on this project together cut the ribbon.
“It takes a community to get things like this done,” Lepchenske said. “We are so fortunate to live in the community that we do.”
