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N0KFQ > TODAY 09.03.16 17:02l 45 Lines 1995 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 87167_N0KFQ
Read: GUEST
Subj: Today in History - Mar 9
Path: IW8PGT<F1OYP<IZ3LSV<IK6IHL<IK7NXU<IW7BFZ<I3XTY<I0OJJ<N6RME<N0KFQ
Sent: 160309/1530Z 87167@N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA BPQ1.4.65
1985
First Adopt-a-Highway sign goes up
On March 9, 1985, the first-ever Adopt-a-Highway sign is erected
on Texas's Highway 69. The highway was adopted by the Tyler
Civitan Club, which committed to picking up trash along a
designated two-mile stretch of the road.
The Adopt-a-Highway program really began the year before, when
James Evans, an engineer for the Texas Department of
Transportation, noticed litter blowing out of the back of a
pickup truck he was following in Tyler, Texas. Concerned about
the increasing cost to the government of keeping roadways clean,
Evans soon began asking community groups to volunteer to pick up
trash along designated sections of local highways. Evans got no
takers for his idea; however, Billy Black, the public information
officer for the Tyler District of the Texas Department of
Transportation, took up the cause and organized the first
official Adopt-a-Highway program, which included training and
equipment for volunteers. After the Tyler Civitan Club's sign
went up on March 9, other groups volunteered to beautify their
own stretches of highway. The program eventually spread to the
rest of the U.S. and to such countries as Canada, Japan and New
Zealand.
Businesses, schools and churches are among the main organizations
to participate in the Adopt-a-Highway (also known in some places
as Sponsor-a-Highway) program. However, over the years, some Ku
Klux Klan and neo-Nazi groups, along with other controversial
organizations, have tried to become involved-and thereby receive
signs along highways acknowledging their effort. After the state
of Missouri rejected a Ku Klux Klan group's application to join
the program, the white supremacist organization charged that its
free-speech rights were being violated. In 2005, the U.S. Supreme
Court ruled that Missouri couldn't prevent the KKK from
participating in the Adopt-a-Highway program.
73, K.O. n0kfq
N0KFQ @ N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA
E-mail: kohiggs@gmail.com
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