The signs, they are a-changing

Submitted by Suanne Z. Thamm

October 1, 2019

New signs at Fernandina Beach downtown intersections.

At their March 5, 2019 Regular Meeting, the Fernandina Beach City Commission (FBCC) passed Resolution 2019-43 approving Dawson Associates LLC as a sole source vendor to place new wayfinding signage in the downtown area.  

Fernandina Beach Main Street paid for the initial design phase with $25K from a grant.  The City paid $180K from impact fees.  This cost covers not only the street signs and parking lot identifiers, but also table top maps that will be placed in the parking lots to identify business locations.

New street directories will replace the green signs that are suspended from poles at cross street intersections.  Those green signs were paid for by merchants, who will not be required to pay for the new signs. 

New signs direct drivers to public parking areas downtown.

Fernandina Beach Main Street last year obtained the services of Dawson Associates LLC with funding assistance from a state grant to study and recommend themed signage for downtown Fernandina Beach to replace the mishmash of signs that have proliferated over the years.  A wide audience of stakeholders participated in the process of coming up with a new design, which was presented to the community last fall. The city and Fernandina Beach Main Street have worked together on this project.

Dawson subcontracted the manufacture of the signs; the graphics were done locally by FastSigns. Jeff Dawson has been working with the installation team to place the first round of new signs.

Sadly, Main Street Executive Director Arlene Filkoff reported that a person or persons have made off with one of the new signs, which cost about $1,200 each.  A police report has been filed.

Filkoff said that any regulatory signs not already replaced will remain, but she is working with the City to standardize those signs.

Update: According to Arlene Filkoff, "The signs are purposely intended to be read by pedestrians. It’s best practice to get folks out of their cars and walking around our beautiful city. It’s actually very unsafe to have business names on signs legible from a car."