New banners honor Greensburg vets

The faces of local veterans and other Greensburg heroes are popping up all over the city, adorning dozens of banners that decorate city lampposts.

The Greensburg Community Development Corporation replaces the city’s decorative banners with new designs every two years. In this round, Executive Director Ashley Kertes said, the corporation decided to do something new: gather photos of veterans from residents to create banners in their honor.

The original plan was to hang the banners last year, but the pandemic arrived. The city was forced to furlough some of its public works staff, who usually are responsible for hanging the banners.

By fall, the public works department was back to full strength, but the holidays were approaching. Greensburg’s banners typically are taken down at that time to make room for decorations.

“We thought it would be best to do it all in one time in the spring,” Kertes said.

Staffers started hanging the banners last week and will continue this week. They will be displayed in Greensburg and Southwest Greensburg.

There are more than 100 new banners, about 70 of which feature veterans. Others display Greensburg landmarks such as the Palace Theatre and Westmoreland County Courthouse.

“If I had known how popular the hero banners were going to be, we would have done all hero banners,” Kertes said.

Since the first hero banners appeared, she has been inundated with requests from people who want to honor their loved ones who served.

“We’re getting calls, emails, messages on Facebook,” Kertes said. “I knew it would be popular, but I never realized how much these meant to people.”

She is looking into the possibility of adding more banners. The corporation will announce any additional slots at facebook.com/thinkgreensburg. The cost to sponsor a banner is $200.

Kertes also is planning an outdoor ceremony May 22 to honor Greensburg veterans, but details have not been finalized.