City council to vote on updating Kilgore's official seal
Published: Mon, 09/11/23
City council to vote on updating Kilgore's official seal
City of Kilgore council members reviewed a proposed new design for the official city seal, which has been in use for decades, at a recent meeting.
Contributed Photo
Kilgore News Herald
By Lucas Strough lstrough@kilgorenewsherald.com
September 10, 2023
The City of Kilgore council members reviewed a proposed new design for the official city seal, which has been in use for decades, at a recent meeting.
City Manager Josh Selleck said cities are required by law to use their official seal on certain documents and Kilgore has been using the same one for so long no one is quite sure when it was first adopted.
“We have a current seal,” Selleck said.
“This is a seal that we’ve had for an amount of time that we’re not able to track down. We can’t find its adoption date, but we know that this is the seal that we have an old, broken stamp for.”
Selleck added Assistant Director of Public Works Mat Kronner and City Clerk Rachel Rowe had created the new design, which incorporates design elements from the city’s 2022 sesquicentennial logo. The new design adds decorative sun rays, lists the date of the Kilgore’s establishment and incorporates the city’s tagline “City of Stars”, which was coined after the creation of the original seal and so was not included in that design.
“Part of our thought process with this is the logo is one piece of our branding package. The city seal stands as an opportunity to use it in our website, we have the opportunity to use it in other places and from staff’s perspective and just about everyone we’ve shown this to, this is much more iconic and representative of Kilgore today than the traditional seal from before,” Selleck said.
Council members Victor Boyd and Missy Merritt expressed approval of the new design.
“I like it,” Boyd said.
“Looking at the old design, it’s kind of dated. It looks plain, simple. With everything that we’re doing now and with the economy that we’re getting, it shows strength. This seal shows strength to me.”
Council member Merlyn Holmes and Mayor Ronnie Spradlin said they liked the design but wanted to check with an embosser to make sure all of the fine details would be visible if the seal is used to stamp documents.
Selleck said he would return at the next meeting with an official ordinance for the council to vote on updating the seal design.