1994-1995 Harry Singer Foundation National Essay Contest
Alternatives: Proposals For Local Governments Struggling
With Limited Resources
1st Kirsten
Krulitz
1st Maria Hegbloom 
2nd Camille Mangelli
2nd Marissa
Hegbloom 
3rd Brad
Juelfs 3rd Michelle
Gotcher
"At a first glance, the Harry Singer Foundation Project seemed overwhelmingly complex
and difficult. However as our class's project progressed, the project began to unfold and
I realized that it was within our reach and that we could in fact carry out our plan
."
Randy Johnson, Wallace High School, Wallace, Idaho
"I thought we would decide on a topic and a few people in the class would end up
doing all the work while the others pretended they were busy so they wouldn't fail the
class. I was wrong. After we had heard the details of the project, about doing something
for the community, my class actually joined together and got busy."
Camille Mangelli, Wallace High School, Wallace, Idaho
"When we first started this project for Harry Singer, my classmates and I had no
idea what we were going to do. Once we started thinking of ideas, we couldn't stop."
Margaret Reynolds, Wallace High School, Wallace, Idaho
"Our first step in trying to pursue our project was to go to city council and ask
permission. ... The council members said that we could try to do the project, but they had
problems in the past trying to do the same thing. We decided to accept [the] challenge and
keep on trying."
Camille Mangelli, Wallace High School, Wallace, Idaho
"This project was a very good learning experience for me. I learned that it takes
a lot more work to decide and work on a project than you think. I also learned that the
town of Wallace has very helpful citizens and [public] officials. They took the time to
answer our questions and were always available. É I really enjoyed working on this
project and the pride I felt when it all came together."
Katy Elliston, Wallace High School, Wallace, Idaho
"We felt that a few billboards would provide an excellent source of advertisement,
but found that each would cost upwards of $20,000, and quickly threw that idea out. É Our
next move was to [check out the possibility of] placing ads on personal property along the
interstate highway É We would place [signs] alongside I-90, an interstate that runs from
Seattle, Washington to as far as Missoula, Montana, and [beyond]. This major traffic
artery would reach thousands of people every month and urge tourists to stop and
sight-see."
Chris L. Carignan, Wallace High School, Wallace, Idaho
"Jared and I sat through the entire meeting, listening to other peoples' proposals
and [noting] how they proposed them. At the end of the meeting, Jared and I approached one
of the council members to question him. The city council member told us they [the council]
would not approve of our idea mainly because of the money that would have to be spent,
which he felt was not in their budget. We asked if he felt the opinion would change if our
class did some fundraising such as selling coffee at Wallace's' information center,
putting jars for donations up in stores, and perhaps holding rummage sales and car washes,
and we raised all money for everything on our own. He said it would be difficult, but if
we could do it, he was sure it would be approved by the rest of the council. With this, we
decided fundraising was our only solution and we would have to ask for as many donations
of the sign material as we could, so we could keep the cost down as low as possible."
Shelly Sparks, Wallace High School Wallace, Idaho
"Now one of [the] problems was how were we going to get the money to make the
signs and what were the signs going to look like. We came up with a fund-raiser that would
not only make money, but would give us design [ideas]. We were going to have a contest
where a person would create a series of pictures of Wallace for our sign. The winner would
get his/her name put on the sign. The entry fee for this contest was to be five
dollars."
Margaret Reynolds, Wallace High School, Wallace, Idaho
"We were a little dismayed, but decided that the Wallace business community could
greatly benefit from our work, and decided to propose that they help pay the bill."
Chris L. Carignan, Wallace High School, Wallace, Idaho
"We found that it would be cheaper to get wood posts and some metal sheeting
[rather than have] the Highway Department make the signs. We decided that this could be a
job for someone and we could [also] hire someone to make and put up our signs."
Margaret Reynolds, Wallace High School, Wallace, Idaho
"When I-90 went through Wallace we always had the tourists, but now that the new
freeway has been built, hardly any tourists stop in to look at our beautiful shops."
Christina Houchin, Wallace High School, Wallace, Idaho
"Once we decided what we were going to do, we had to figure out how to do it. This
led us to call an attorney. É Mr. Ben Simpson generously donated about twenty minutes of
his busy day to explain ... the law and restrictions on hanging flags. We also discussed
liability insurance in case someone was injured while [hanging] the flags. He told us that
since Washington Water Power uses cherry-picker trucks to hang up the flags during
Christmas, their insurance would cover accidents."
Matt Davis, Wallace High School, Wallace, Idaho
"To be sure that we were within our legal bounds, we invited a lawyer to visit our
class and explain our legal rights. [He] explained how we had to contact the Highway
Department and get the ok from them. He also explained to us the act that Lady Bird
Johnson put into effect on highway advertising. This law stated that you cannot put signs
just anywhere; they have to be legally approved and the Highway Department is the one that
regulates this. In addition to these obstacles, we also had to find our private land,
compensate the owner for it, and find a way to get the spare time to actually do this
project."
Chris L. Carignan, Wallace High School, Wallace, Idaho
"We realized that there would be no real danger of anyone losing their job. But
the fact that we could, maybe, be creating jobs, made us want to do this exciting topic
more than ever."
Owen Cotter, Wallace High School, Wallace, Idaho
"Now that we knew what the people of Wallace wanted, we had to decide which idea
our class wanted to pursue. We all came to class with pros and cons about each idea. One
by one, we eliminated the ideas that didn't have much support from the community. We were
left with the following projects to choose from: increase the advertisement of Wallace,
add a city park in Wallace, and raise money for the city pool. As a lifeguard, I was
trying my hardest to push the others to choose to raise money for the pool. My persuasion
didn't workÑthe pool was the first to be crossed off the list. As a class we then decided
that installing a city park would be too hard because there was no place in Wallace to put
it. We discussed increasing the advertisement of Wallace and decided that was something we
not only wanted to do, but it was also something that we could probably do."
Angela Bailey, Wallace High School, Wallace, Idaho
"We decided that to pursue this project any longer would cost more money and take
up more time than we had. If we had the time and funds, this project could be
accomplished. I feel this project brought my English class closer than we were when we
started. I learned a lot of things about people that I didn't know before, such as their
opinions on things and how they go about accomplishing certain tasks. We agreed and
disagreed on things but through many compromises we made it through our troubles and came
up with fantastic ideas. We had fun going uptown and talking to people together to find
out questions we had about our community. This was a great project in my eyes."
Donnie Hulsizer, Wallace High School, Wallace, Idaho
"The mayor of Wallace said that it was a good idea and that she was behind us all
the way."
Christina Houchin, Wallace High School, Wallace, Idaho
"[Classmates] went to a local museum and talked to John Amenson, who deals with
our type of situation daily. He told Kristi and Shelly that it was an excellent idea but
that he knew lots of people who tried to help historic Wallace by advertising and said
they always ran into a brick wall. Mr. Amenson agreed that receiving donations for coffee
and snacks was excellent but, it would probably not bring in enough money to fund [our]
project."
Kristi Olson, Wallace High School, Wallace, Idaho
"We all liked the idea of having a huge billboard along the highway showing off
our great town, but when we found out that one billboard sold for $20,000 we decided
against it. Instead we chose to make smaller signs on our own and put them up ourselves.
... We had to decide what material we could use that would not weather very quickly. After
talking to a few hardware stores and building companies, we decided to make them out of
wood and aluminum. É We [discovered] oil paints would weather [best and] the posts would
have to be grounded in cement, which would cost us $55.00 a yard."
Maria Hegbloom, Wallace High School, Wallace, Idaho
"I never would have thought how much a company or business has to go through just
to advertise their product. I also learned if you are going to do something which seems as
if there is no end in sight, É take the time and effort to do it right. Even though we
did not follow through with the billboard idea, we tried as hard as we could to be
successful. It was just impossible with all of the money we needed and the class would
have graduated before we could obtain all the [required] permits. We are not going to put
up the sign but we did learn a lot from our encounters, thanks to the project."
Brad Juelfs, Wallace High School, Wallace, Idaho
"What legal problems will this present? What material do we make the signs out of?
How do we fund this project? I could clearly see this project would be more complex than
any of us thought in the beginning."
Jared Watson, Wallace High School, Wallace, Idaho
"Street improvement was too difficult and expensive to consider; it also had too
many legal complications. Better snow removal was a very close choice until the class
found out what it would cost to hire, train, and employ extra workers for the city."
Shannon McDonald, Wallace High School, Wallace, Idaho