Then again, maybe it isn’t. Whatever it signifies, we’re amazed at the lack of intergovernmental communication regarding, of all things, highway markers.

We can seem to mark dozens of Santa Fe Trail crossings, but tourism and highway officials combined can’t seem to install a single sign telling tourists how to reach the county’s biggest destination other than its lakes: Chaplain Emil Kapaun’s hometown.

And now we can’t seem to get our act together enough to warn drivers on the US-56 detour that a planned shortcut on Eisenhower Dr. is blocked off a mile down the road, forcing them to U-turn, drive down a gravel road or traverse a ditch.

Both are issues of safety and plain old human decency. For all the various tourism and economic development experts on local governments’ payrolls. you’d hope at least one would want us to seem more hospitable to passersby.

— ERIC MEYER

UPDATE: Barricades restricting Eisenhower Dr. to local traffic were installed at K-256/Main St. after the newspaper went to press.