BILLINGS- If you are hanging around the Billings South Side, be sure to look up. There are new signs, serving as a welcome mat to the neighborhood.
Melissa Henderson with the Healthy by Design coalition said the signs were recently installed as a way to rebrand the south side community.
A dozen of the new signs were placed in the area on street light posts or traffic signs and at the entrances to South Park and Highland Park.
Henderson said the artwork of the signs were designed by local artist Addam “AJ” Ostlund, a graphic designer and South Side resident.
The slogan on the signs reads “The South Side, the Bright Side of the Tracks.”
“We were in a meeting with some neighborhood seniors that were talking about misperceptions of the neighborhood. They were feeling like it’s always the wrong side. So they wanted it to be the right side,” said Henderson. “But they also felt like that wasn’t fair to other communities so they settled on the bright side.”
If you’re wondering about the cost?
Billings Public Works made and installed the signs at no charge, by working with the South Side Neighborhood Task Force.
She also said other Billings community coalitions are interested in making signs for their own area of town. She said the South Side is serving a pilot project for the new artwork.
