You could say it's a sign of the times.
A big, bright digital sign for Penhold, a two-sided one that measures four metres wide by two and a half metres deep.
The Town of Penhold will install the new digital sign near the Fas Gas station at the intersection of highways 42 and 2A by mid-December.
One of the goals in the town's strategic plan revolved around improved communication and the new digital sign will play a part in fulfilling that, said Mayor Dennis Cooper.
“We want to better the quality of communication with residents and be able to give notices properly,” said Cooper. “One of the ways we thought that other communities have used is going to an electronic or digital sign to pass that message on.”
The sign is costing the town $90,000 and was budgeted accordingly when it was first discussed at council a year and a half ago during a strategic planning session, noted Cooper.
He noted there is a busy and active calendar in town, which makes it imperative local residents are informed.
“That's one of the big reasons why we wound up doing that (digital sign), is to be able to get out the information on events and notices to the public in a very effective way,” he said, noting they have not yet created a policy for sign usage but expect to complete one in the near future.
In doing so, it would stipulate who could use the digital sign, how and for what.
“We're hoping to use the digital sign for numerous different areas. Right now that policy has not been written for the use of the sign,” said Cooper. “What we need first is to make sure we have a policy that everybody can work with and that's going to be developed over the next week or so. We will have an idea of how we use our digital sign and how we move forward from there.”
Cooper said it could incorporate usage for both community groups and advertisers, including for upcoming events, public notices, and programs available in Penhold.
“We may even get to a point where we might be able to sell some advertising to some local businesses,” he said.
Cooper said the new big digital sign is also a way to keep moving forward with the latest communication trends by using the best and most innovative methods of today's technology.
“To be able to properly communicate what we're doing is so very important to our citizens,” he said, adding the new sign will be another tool the town can use to communicate, promote and inform its citizens, in addition to the town's website and widely used social media, like Facebook and Twitter.
“We're trying to reach out to our citizens in a number of different ways,” said Cooper. “We have really aggressively worked on trying to communicate the message out to our citizens so they feel that they're informed.”
Mayor Dennis Cooper
"To be able to properly communicate what we're doing is so very important to our citizens. We're trying to reach out to our citizens in a number of different ways."
