NORWAY – Norway Downtown Revitalization has approved spending up to $15,000 of grant money on signs for historic buildings on Main Street.
At the board’s Sept. 1 meeting, member Ken Morse proposed that the board buy 36 signs from Folia, a Quebec-based company. The signs cost about twice what a fiberglass sign would, but have a 10-year warranty. Fiberglass signs generally last about five years.
Morse hopes each of the full-color signs will have a map of the downtown area and one or two historic photos. He thinks the photos will be of more interest to visitors to Main Street than wordy histories of each building, having seen “during the summer festival how many people stood and looked at the photos” on display in the windows of the Newberry’s building.
Morse presented an estimate from Folia for 27 12- by 18-inch signs and nine 18- by 24-inch signs. With mounting, the 36 signs would cost just over $12,000. With the $15,000, the board would be able to put a sign on each of the 34 buildings in the walking tour guide. If business owners contribute to the project, or if unused grant money from the C.B. Cummings dowel mill redevelopment project becomes available, the board may be able to buy signs for other historic buildings in the area.
In other business, board President Roy Gedat said he has been checking messages on the office answering machine every day in order to keep the office running since Downtown Project Manager Ann Campbell was laid off last month.
In short, Gedat said, “The status of the office is that it’s there, and it’s probably going to stay there at least until October.”
The board “hasn’t come to any conclusion about staffing and ways to keep the doors open, and we probably won’t in the next few weeks,” he said.
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