Many cities honor a famous local person with a large sign on a major highway. Northwest Ohio has honored the late U.S. Marine Corps Gen. Walter Churchill with a small sign on U.S. 23 in Sylvania.
Why haven’t we found the money to place a large sign proclaiming Toledo the birthplace of jazz pianist Art Tatum? There are many other people we could honor: entertainer Danny Thomas, former NASA official Gene Kranz, jazz great Jon Hendricks, humorist P.J. O’Rourke, and singer Teresa Brewer, to name a few.
If the appropriate public agency doesn’t have the money this year, perhaps it could be put in the budget for next year. Maybe residents or business leaders could contribute to a fund to honor our own, which might also include some of our brave veterans.
RON BUERMELE
Imperial Drive