Religious Sign Erector Jimmy Harston Puts Smiles On Faces Of God's Children.

A sign from God
Allen County man feels led to erect billboards
By NATALIE JORDAN

Jimmy Harston lives on a quiet farm six miles north of Scottsville, but his messages along some of the busiest interstate highways in America are loud and clear.

“I didn’t really know what to put up at first, and I prayed about it,” he said.

For years, Harston has sought out places for billboards on the private property of landowners who, like Harston, wanted to express their Christian beliefs. The signs, which can be seen from the interstate, bear content such as parts of the Ten Commandments, “Hell is Real,” “If You Died Today Where Would You Spend Eternity?” and “Jesus Saves.”

“I put these up for the people who wants them on their property. They want the signs on their property,” he said. “The Lord put this on me ... to do, and it’s not easy to do ... and I don’t think I put up as many as I should.”

Harston has met opposition over the billboards. The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet’s Department of Highways in 2008 sued to have his signs along Interstate 65 taken down. Harston lost the initial court cases, but appeals are pending.

“I felt bad,” Harston said. “I didn’t want the attention, the litigation. It’s hard enough to put up signs without fighting the state.”

But despite the legal fight, Harston said he had to put the billboards up. “The Lord put it on my heart,” he said.

Harston put up his first sign 20 years ago on U.S. 31 E, and it still stands.

“It was in the wintertime,” he said. “I felt a nagging to do it.”

Harston said even then, when putting up the sign, he was told he couldn’t. A law says no billboards should be erected 660 feet from the state highway for the use of profit.

But he says these signs aren’t for profit.

Harston said about four or five years after he put up his first sign, he had a “nagging” to put up another - this time in Barren County.

And just seven years ago, Harston said the Lord put it on him to erect these billboards wherever he could. That meant Arkansas, Tennessee, eight in Ohio and three along the I-65 stretch between Warren and Larue counties. The last one he put up was on Interstate 10, outside Fort Stockton, Texas.

A billboard containing the Ten Commandments is in front of Cedar Cross Missionary Baptist Church, in the Cedar Springs community outside Scottsville, where Harston attends. He erected it after the church asked him to.

“It belongs to the church,” he said. “It’s not mine.

“These billboards are about freedom of speech and expressing religious beliefs,” he said.

And Harston’s point of view is shared by many, including House Rep. Jody Richards, D-Bowling Green. Richards said that while messages on the billboards may be offensive to nonbelievers, property owners are within their rights to express their beliefs.

“It’s unfortunate some are offended by that,” he said.

Harston leases the property on which the signs sit through the Spring Corp., whose stockholders are Harston, his wife, Kathy, and their children. One such lease exists between Harston and Warren County residents Donnie and Brenda Kimbro.

Kimbro, who owns about 89 acres off I-65, has had the billboard Harston erected since former Gov. Ernie Fletcher was in office.

It reads “Jesus Saves” on one side and “Jesus Died for Our Sins” on the other.

“I feel like a sign like this should be left alone. It’s a religious message we want people to see. It may change somebody’s life,” he said. “It’ll break my heart to take it down. I just don’t think it’s right to do so.”

Kimbro said they linked with Harston through another contact, who told them of Harston’s interstate messages.

“We talked to Harston, who said he felt like it was God’s calling,” he said. “Me and my wife discussed it, came up with the message we wanted to display.”

Kimbro said people may see the signs and it could cause them to go the right way, and it seemed like the right thing to do. He said when putting the sign up, people passing by would wave or beep or give a thumbs up.

“And I knew letting Harston put it up was the right thing to do,” he said. “I know the Lord works in mysterious ways.

“It seems like this has been a thorn in his side and a thorn in mine, but I truly believe the Lord will work it out. We’ll just keep praying.”

Harston, who is a lake property developer, has done real estate development for the past 25 years. In 1996, he left the supervisor position he had at R. Donnelly in Glasgow, where he worked with House Rep. Johnny Bell, D-Glasgow.

Bell drafted House Bill 536, which would have exempted Harston’s billboards from the guidelines imposed by the 1965 Federal Beautification Act.

“He has not come out and asked anyone to put these signs up. People have contacted him and asked him to put those signs up for them,” Bell said.

Bell said those bearing the billboards are engaged in a 99-year lease with Harston, which shows their intent and the importance of what they want to do with their land.

“And it is a sad day when the state and federal governments start telling us what we can do on our own private property,” he said.

While people learn of the signs primarily by word of mouth, Harston has placed advertisements in various publications for people wanting the sings to express their religious beliefs. The billboards - with printing, constructing and labor - run Harston between $3,500 and $8,000. He doesn’t collect fees; he puts them up at no cost to the landowner.

“The Lord has been really good to me,” he said. “I could tell you some things the Lord has done for me.”

Married in 1975, his wife was diagnosed two weeks after the wedding with cystic fibrosis, and was told she would not live very long. But he said the Lord told him she would be OK.

The two reared three children, and have four grandchildren.

Harston said while his family doesn’t like the trouble surrounding the billboards, “they support me,” he said. He said he may not know the actual impact his billboards have on spectators that see them as they cruise up and down interstates, but he believes it’s good.

“I’m just a country boy that the Lord saved when I was a young man,” Harston said. “They’re just religious signs, and there may be some people out there that don’t know, and it may make them think.

“I just try to do the best I can.”

Editor's comment: I don't know about you, but the signs put a smile on my face EVERY TIME I see them.

The world could use more of them.