"We've been responsible for that wall for nine years," said Walter "Bud" Wahl, past president of the Hardscrabble Lions Club in Streator. "We just decided it's time to change themes again."

The predominantly white retaining wall, which is directly east of the Bridge Street bridge over the Vermilion River, previously sported a painting that included a lion (symbolizing the Lions Club) and a color scheme based on the old "Celebrate Streator" logo created for the city's Independence Day fireworks celebration. Originally painted nine years ago, the painting was touched up four or five years ago, Wahl said.

The new, bigger mural includes scenes indicative of Streator's history. Designed by Streator native Scott Coley, the mural includes a coal mine, the Vermilion River and a farm field.

"We told him what we wanted and he designed it," Wahl said.

Coley has done the bulk of the painting. He did some last month and will resume during an upcoming weekend to be determined, Wahl said.

The Lions Club had considered painting faces of Clyde Tombaugh and other famous Streator residents on the wall but ultimately decided against that so people wouldn't be straining to see the different parts of the mural while driving along a curved road, Wahl said.

Wahl doesn't know when a different mural might be painted there again, but guessed the new one will be on the wall at least five or six years.

"Usually we wait (to paint) until the wall needs to be sandblasted," he said.

The Hardscrabble Lions Club, consisting of 21 members, has environmental awareness as one of its themes. Along with highway cleanup and other environmentally friendly activities, the club maintains the small park across the street from the mural.

When completed, it will be the third mural to be finished in Streator this year. The others are one dedicated to Clyde Tombaugh, above Don's Furniture on Main Street, and one showing a historical scene involving an old gas station and vintage vehicles, on the side of a business facing the Streator Public Library.