Time to ‘sign off’?
Residents want to take down or revamp sign displaying old organizations
LANSDALE >> What can, and what should, borough officials do about an aging welcome sign near the Lansdale train station?
That’s a question local officials are starting to consider, with a discussion that started on Facebook.
“There has been a conversation about what to do about that ugly, because I don’t think there’s any other way to describe it, sign that sits at the entrance to Madison Street,” said council President Denton Burnell.
“First of all, we have to figure out whether we own the property it’s situated on. It may belong to SEPTA — that’s to be determined — but if it’s ours, what are the options?”
The conversation started with a Facebook post on the “Citizens for the Revitalization of Lansdale” group from borough resident Candy Pack on Feb. 28, asking who owns the sign and if it could be addressed. Standing on Main Street at Railroad Avenue just next to a smaller sign for the nearby SEPTA train station, the sign reads “The Lansdale Merchants Association welcomes you to shop Lansdale,” with smaller crests below for several local chapters of national organizations: Rotary International, Kiwanis International, Lions International, The National Federation of Business and Professional Women’s Clubs, the Knights of Columbus, the Pennsylvania Order of the Eastern Star, and the American Legion.
According to comments in the Citizens Facebook group, the meeting information posted on the sign is outdated for several groups, and other groups on the sign may not still exist. Mayor Andy Szekely said he asked borough officials about the sign in February 2012, and was told by the then borough manager that developer Equus Capital Partners “would transform this area” once they began work on constructing apartments atop the nearby Madison Parking Lot — a project that is still in the approval phase, five years later.
“I emphasized that with a little elbow grease, this area could be spruced up with minimal effort. After all, this is the heart of town — what visitors see when they get off the train. I say, let’s get some volunteers and take it down,” Szekely said.
Bill Henning, a board member of local nonprofit Discover Lansdale, said that group has recently talked about the sign in their own internal meetings, “with the desire to give it a makeover. The question was, who owns it?”
“I like having the info for the various organization on display but they are so old and worn everyone has become blinded to it. How many of them are still active?” he said.
According to Szekely, the Rotary, Kiwanis and Lions clubs and local American Legion post all still exist, while the Jaycees, Business and Professional Women’s Club, and the Order of the Eastern Star “are no longer with us.”
Assistant Borough Manager John Ernst said Wednesday during council’s administration and finance committee meeting that he and borough staff have begun to try to trace the ownership, and said if the sign is on SEPTA land, that agency would likely not object if the borough removes the sign.
“Let’s figure out if we own it first, before we take it down,” Burnell said.
“Ideally, we’ll find out we own it, and then maybe it becomes an EDC/Com Comm conversation of what we do with it, in terms of how we spruce it up,” he said, referring to the borough Economic Development Committee and Communication Commission.
In the Facebook discussion, Szekely suggested residents “get your chainsaws ready” and suggested a date of March 25 to take the sign down. Councilman Jason Van Dame, chairman of the administration and finance and economic development committees, said residents should hold off on taking any action until the borough has more answers.
“We are looking into ownership of that sign and what we can do to remedy that situation there, hopefully before the angry mob gets to it with its chainsaws on the 25th,” Van Dame said.
“That’s right,” Szekely replied, to which Burnell added, “Just be patient.”
Several residents made suggestions for changes or upgrades to the sign in the Facebook discussion. Kim Cummings-Stump suggested “What about updating the sign and adding local merchants to the sign?”
“Local merchants, if they wanted to could pay to have their sign posted there as well. So people coming off the train would see all the local merchants in the area,” she said.
Heather DeRosier suggested the sign be replaced with an up to date map showing local landmarks and businesses, and posted an example of such a sign in another community.
“You could do one side for Main Street (heading west from the train station) and the other side for those walking towards Broad,” she said.
Chris Milheim asked if the old signs could be salvaged and preserved by the organizations they belong to, or kept by a local business or the borough historical society. Tammy Carpenter Skiermont said the Rotary Club next meets on March 21, and could help mobilize volunteers for a cleanup effort on the 25th — “we will be happy to help!”
Another alternative was suggested by Stacey Gunning-Tornetta: “I bet if you never posted about and just took it down no one in the borough would have noticed.”