Bullhead City Turns SR 95 Utility Boxes Into Colorful Welcome Signs
City Gains Control—and Artistic License
BULLHEAD CITY — Fresh off winning control of State Route 95, city officials are wasting no time turning bland roadside hardware into splashy welcome signs. Public Works crews will begin priming a half‑dozen utility cabinets this month so local painters can lay down murals that highlight the river, the desert and Bullhead’s frontier roots, according to internal correspondence between City Manager Toby Cotter and the River Valley Artists’ Guild.
City administration views the boxes—now a dull gray at major intersections—as the quickest way to “improve the overall aesthetic of our city’s primary thoroughfare” and discourage graffiti. “Our management of the highway now allows us to … decorate the utility boxes at the intersections, install our signage, [and] decorate the medians,” Cotter announced after the Arizona Department of Transportation handed SR 95 to the city late last year.
The makeover has been on Bullhead’s wish list since a 2018 council visioning session that called utility‑box art one of several “short‑term goals” for reviving Old Bullhead. With the jurisdictional hurdle gone, City Hall asked the nonprofit Artists’ Guild this spring to solicit concepts.
Artists & Designs Selected
Twenty‑three designs arrived, and an April e‑mail from Cotter to Guild president Victoria Valdemar shows the city’s first choices:
- a Colorado River sunrise and whimsical beach‑ball pattern for Laughlin Ranch Road
- a bull’s‑head motif wrapped in stylized flag stripes for Marina Boulevard
- black‑and‑white geometric lizards for Hancock Road
- a pared‑down desert vista for Corwin Road meant to greet drivers entering town
Public Works Director Angie Johnson will tour the boxes with each artist next week to confirm measurements and access. Painters will use UV‑resistant exterior enamel supplied by the city; a clear anti‑tagging coat goes on last. Johnson said by phone that the goal is to have all four intersections finished “before the tourism rush in early fall,” contingent on summer heat.
Timeline, Funding & Expansion Plans
While Bullhead is starting with seven cabinets, officials hint at more. SR 95 alone has more than thirty city‑owned signal boxes, and Cotter said staff is exploring sponsorships or grants to keep the program running. Similar campaigns in Casa Grande and Clark County have proven that “once the first few go up, the community starts asking for the rest,” he noted.
The artists—most of them Guild members—will be paid a $750 honorarium, enough to cover supplies and a modest wage. Guild vice‑president Sheila Barger, whose bold graphic lizards were selected for Hancock Road, called the project “a statement that Bullhead cares about art as much as asphalt.” Fellow contributor Dorothy Campbell agreed, saying her softened desert scene for Corwin Road “lets visitors know they’re entering a river town, not just cutting through the Mojave.”
City Hall hopes the bright boxes also cut down on vandalism. Studies in Phoenix and San Diego have shown wrapped or painted cabinets are tagged far less often than bare metal. Bullhead spends roughly $40,000 a year sand‑blasting graffiti; Public Works believes the art could shave a quarter off that bill.
The cabinet initiative dovetails with other beautification moves—median landscaping, new signage and pocket‑park discussions—all enabled by local control of SR 95. Cotter said the highway transfer “lets us act quickly instead of waiting on Phoenix,” and credited state legislators for steering $38 million in pavement and safety funds to the corridor.
No public money is coming from the city’s one‑percent art fund because Bullhead doesn’t have one. Instead, the work is being financed through the street‑beautification line in the Public Works budget; that account is supplemented by the highway maintenance agreement the city negotiated with ADOT.
September Unveiling & Next Steps
Residents will get their first look at completed boxes during a “Drive the Art” unveiling slated for late September. The Guild plans to post progress photos and invite school groups to watch the painting. If feedback is positive—and officials expect it will be—the city will issue a second call for artists this winter, aiming to cover every cabinet on SR 95 within three years.
“You don’t have to spend millions to make a place feel like home,” Cotter said. “Sometimes all it takes is a splash of color at a red light.”
—Stephen Lightman
