Governor Mike Beebe and Ginger Beebe, First Lady, with the Downtown Neighborhood Association, today unveiled the first intersection sign promoting the identity of the Governor's Mansion Historic District in the residential blocks surrounding our state's official residence for the Governor of Arkansas. The sign was installed at 18th and Center Streets, at the Mansion.

"Since our founding in 1984, residents working in the Downtown Neighborhood Association have worked to improve the quality of life in our area, and to publicize that good news," said Kathy Wells, DNA project coordinator. "These intersection signs aid families shopping for a new home, as well as tourists seeking the Governor's Mansion."

The Association worked with city officials, who provided a cash match - $603 - to funds raised by DNA for purchase of the signs. The money was a grant from the city's Challenge Grant project for neighborhood associations.

City officials accepted the donated signs and will install them, using city Public Works Department crews, on perimeter corners of the Historic District. Some will be put on interior intersections by arrangement with residents, who asked for signs on particular corners, and paid for those signs directly. The Governor's Mansion Association donated funds to install a sign in front of the Mansion itself.

The sign graphic art represents the facade of the Mansion, and the art was donated by Delia Thessing, an artist, who visited the Mansion to make drawings directly from the building facade.

Twenty signs are being installed in this first phase to the project, according to an Association spokesman. The sign company will make others as ordered, individually or in groups. Donations came rapidly once the project was announced, and included contributions from the Quapaw Quarter Association and Quapaw Home and Garden Club, in addition to checks from individuals. Next year, the Association will work to provide the signs, called signtoppers, at major intersections with larger traffic signs.

The second round of signs is now being made, in response to another influx of donations from residents interested in signs on their street corners throughout the grid of the District. Another dozen signs will be erected from this phase.

"Don't Go Topless On Your Corner" was the slogan used by DNA to raise money for the $1,500 project, which included purchase of installation brackets for each sign. DNA is continuing to accept contributions to provide signs for a few remaining boundary intersections, the spokesman said, as well as any interior corner desired by the resident donating to the project.

For more information, call 375-6987. The signtopper design, as well as a map of the Historic District, is posted on the DNA website.