New signs on Tonganoxie's southern and eastern sides greet residents and visitors to the city. A star on the sign is supposed to represent the city's location in the state but actually would place a visitor west of Topeka.

Driving into Tonganoxie from either the south or east on U.S. Highway 24-40, you may notice new signs welcoming residents and visitors to Tonganoxie.

But if you look closely, you might think you’re just west of Topeka.

Two new $15,200 granite signs at the edges of town were installed recently, replacing old, worn-down, wooden signs. The new signs, designed by Eagle Memorial of Tonganoxie, are in the shape of the state of Kansas. They have the city’s logo, its founding date and a red star in the upper right quadrant.

According to Mike Yanez, city administrator, the star is a “visual representation of where you find Tongie on the map.”

But when a map of the state is overlaid on top of the sign, the star is somewhere around Paxico. That town of about 220 people is about 60 miles west of Tonganoxie.

“It’s not to scale,” Yanez said of the Tonganoxie locator star. “It might be a little left. I don’t know.”

Mayor Mike Vestal, who took office last month, said he wasn’t part of the planning for the new signs.

“If that star is supposed to represent Tonganoxie, I don’t care if that’s done to scale or not – that’s wrong,” Vestal said.

On Aug. 14, 2006, the City Council was asked to vote on three different designs for the new highway signs. Two designs came from Star Signs and Graphics Inc., a Lawrence-based company, and the third design came from Eagle Memorial. In a tie-breaking vote, then-Mayor Dave Taylor agreed with Council members Jim Truesdell and Ron Cranor to accept Eagle Memorial’s design.

The design was for two 48-by-72-inch rectangular signs made of 4-inch gray granite stone. The design given to the council was not originally in the shape of Kansas and did not include a star.

Bill Jones, owner of Eagle Memorial, said he worked out all details for the new signs with Taylor and Yanez after the council vote. Those details included changing the rectangle to an outline of Kansas and adding the red star to “indicate Tonganoxie.”

Jones maintains the star isn’t too far west.

“Not if you measure the whole rock and laid it all out. It’s to scale,” he said.