Banner proposal

Two new canvas banners celebrating Troy and its history - past and more recent - proposed for the east wall of the Troy Masonic Temple at 107 W. Main St. near the Public Square received the approval Wednesday of the Troy Planning Commission.

The existing banners were placed in 2013 for the Mumford and Sons Gentlemen of the Road festival. Their replacement due to fading had been under discussion for some time.

The new banners would incorporate the blue and orange colors used in new city branding introduced this year. They also include reminders of the 2013 Gentlemen of the Road Stopover event, a WACO airplane as built in Troy, a bar code to celebrate the first bar code scan at the former Marsh Supermarket in 1974 and year 1814, when the city was incorporated.

The new banners were propose by the Activate Troy Partnership, a public-private partnership. “The ATP feels that the updated designs will continue to enhance the overall experience of visitors and residents to our downtown,” the group said in a letter presented to the commission Wednesday.

Information on the banners and what the various icons depicted on them represent will be displayed in a window at the Masonic Temple building and in other downtown businesses.

The city will pay the $1,800 to cover the cost of the banners and their installation. NANCY BOWMAN, CONTRIBUTING WRITER