Supervisors consider re-designating Highway 78

Jefferson County Board of Supervisors is one of several governmental bodies asked to approve re-designating a portion of Highway 78 as the Jay N. ?Ding? Darling Highway.

?One of the criteria to re-designate a highway name is having a resolution from each county and city along the portion of the highway being considered,? said Rose Jaynes from Brighton Chamber of Commerce.

Jaynes and Rosemary Pacha attended Monday?s board of supervisors meeting to present information about the highway re-designation and ask for a resolution of support.

Jaynes said the Brighton chamber would be responsible for signage indicating the naming of the portion of Highway 78 in Darling?s honor. The chamber also is providing the documentation of why Darling is worthy to be honored this way.

Jay Norwood Darling is the namesake of Lake Darling State Park in Washington County.

Darling, an American cartoonist, won two Pulitzer Prizes in 1924 and 1942 for his editorial cartoons while working at The Des Moines Register. His cartoons also were published from 1917 to 1949 in the New York Herald Tribune.

He was born Oct. 21, 1876, and died Feb. 12, 1962. He was not a native Iowan, but as a child, would visit his uncle?s farm in southeast Iowa, said Jaynes.

?He remembers the lushness and vibrant health of the land as a child, then when he returned later as an adult, saw how farming had stripped the land and fouled the water,? said Jaynes.

Darling was one of the first conservationists, and drew some conservation cartoons.

?He wanted to help preserve wetlands for water fowl and this was during the Depression, so he initiated the Federal Duck Stamp program. He designed the first stamp,? said Jaynes. ?He was connected to six presidents, beginning with Teddy Roosevelt.?

President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed him as head of the U.S. Biological Survey, forerunner of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The J. N. ?Ding? Darling National Wildlife Refuge on Sanibel Island in southwest Florida also is named for him.

His nickname stuck when he began signing his work with a contraction of his last name, D?ing.

Jaynes said Highway 78 will still be known as Highway 78; it?s not being re-named, but a portion is being re-designated to honor Darling.

The Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum in West Branch has a current exhibit of Darling?s cartoons on display through March 23, said Jaynes.

?It?s important for communities to come together to support economic development and tourism,? said supervisor chairman Dick Reed. ?We can put a resolution on the agenda for next week.?

In other business, the supervisors approved a public hearing at 9:30 a.m. March 10, for the county to sell 12.58 acres of land in Section 22, Liberty Township, Jefferson County.

A neighboring property owner has expressed interest in purchasing the property from the county.

Adam Plagge, director of Fairfield Economic Development Association, told the supervisors the proposed urban renewal project the county plans for the Heartland Co-op facility needs a name. The supervisors will consider what to name the urban renewal project.