GRANBURY, Texas. The City of Granbury has been asked many times to install its Purple Heart City signs. TxDOT identified paperwork the city still needed to complete, then explicitly told Granbury that installation was the city’s responsibility. Kolton Krottinger says the signs remain uninstalled.

The City Council approved the designation May 21, 2024. City Manager Chris Coffman personally credited Krottinger with bringing forward the proclamation and working through the designation requirements, according to the official minutes.

More than two years later, Krottinger was still asking city officials to finish the project. In a July 8 email, he specifically identified Coffman’s office as the location of one sign:

“Chris Coffman has one Purple Heart sign in his office I paid for I’d like put up and I have the other one. Can we make this a priority?”

TXDOT PUT THE RESPONSIBILITY IN WRITING

By June 22, 2026, Deputy City Manager Michael Ross confirmed that the two signs and poles were available for installation at the U.S. 377 city-limit entrances.

On August 6, Ross asked who would install the signs. Townsend-Haehn answered: “The City of Granbury installs the signs to TXDOT standards that were provided in previous email.”

“WHAT IF WE PUT THE SIGN ON A FLOCK POLE?”

Krottinger’s repeated requests grew increasingly pointed. On July 29, he asked whether residents needed to supply concrete and install the poles themselves.

“I feel like if this was a Flock camera you’d have it up quickly. What if we put the sign on a flock pole?” he wrote. His correspondence also criticized the city’s attention to data-center development while the veterans’ signs remained uninstalled.

Purple Heart recognition honors recipients of the military decoration. The Military Order of the Purple Heart describes its recognition program as creating visible reminders of their sacrifice, including signs along roads and highways.

For Granbury, the proclamation is documented. The availability of the signs and poles is documented. TxDOT’s instructions to the city are documented. What the correspondence does not provide is a date when those signs will actually stand at the city’s entrances.

The question for Coffman and city administration: What remains unfinished, and when will the signs be installed? Is Coffman stealing the sign for his own office?