The San Jacinto Neighborhood Association and the Historic 6th on Route 66th Association have approached the Amarillo City Council about changing an ordinance so a Route 66 shield could be painted on the big water tower at 6th Street (aka Route 66) and Independence Street on the city’s west side.
As previously reported in February, the groups must raise $18,000 by Sept. 30 to add the shield to the water tower.
KAMR-TV in Amarillo reports on the details on how the painting could get done:
The City of Amarillo has never painted any logo on any water tower in the city and has no ordinance in place to allow it.
They do have an adopted ordinance which allows renaming streets, and a similar one to rename buildings or parks that could work in this case.
Director of Planning and Development Services, Andrew Freeman, explains how it would work.
“Part of the last ordinance, it does lay out the petition for those name changes and it does detail who pays for it. Typically, we just pay for the base level paint and if somebody wants to do something different as far as material, it’s at their cost,” said Freeman. […]
Mayor Ginger Nelson said she’d prefer to amend the current ordinance and next spring if approved is when the paint job would occur.
Kathryn Traves, president of the San Jacinto group, said the repainted water tower would help drive new tourism to the 6th Street district.
“The Cadillac Ranch gets nearly half a million visitors yearly. We want those half a million folks to come down to Sixth Street and post pics with the Amarillo 66th shield on our water tower and spend money in our neighborhood stimulating our economy for more Amarillo,” said Traves.
Any donation for the project will be accepted, but pledges of $66 or more will earn a certificate of participation. One can donate through PayPal at info@rt66oftexas.com.
Donations for the cause also will be accepted at Texas Ivy Antiques at 3511 SW 6th Ave in Amarillo. The phone number there is (806) 373-1427.
(Artist’s rendering of the repainted water tower from a campaign flyer)
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