Private donors make Blue Mile glow

No awards cash used to pay for entry markers

The monumental masonry base of each of the two Blue Mile Gateway signs, near the U.S. Highway 301 entrance to Georgia Southern University, contains a plaque. The identical plaques list dedications for donors of $5,000 or more. - photo by AL HACKLE/Staff

W Blue Mile SIGN 6023 — The monumental masonry base of each of the two Blue Mile Gateway signs, near the U.S. Highway 301 entrance to Georgia Southern University, contains a plaque. The identical plaques list dedications for donors of $5,000 or more. - photo by AL HACKLE/Staff

The most strikingly visible project so far in the Blue Mile revitalization of South Main Street required neither public funds nor America’s Best Communities winnings. Local donations paid for the “Blue Mile” gateway signs, which glow at night, and their masonry bases. Blue Mile Committee members asserted this when the more-than $100,000 project, with Whitfield Signs as the main contractor, was completed in March.