The Board of Selectmen on Tuesday approved spending $8,800 to buy and install two “Welcome to New Canaan” signs at two intersections close to where people drive into town, and at least one more may come later.
The design for the new “Welcome to New Canaan” signs, which will be red with gold trim.
Now that the board has given its approval, Assistant Public Works Tiger Mann said he hopes to get the signs installed within about a month. The signs are made from treated wood painted red with gold trim and finials, and with the statement “Settled in 1731” on the bottom. The town seal is on top. The signs are six feet wide and roughly four feet high
One sign will be installed at the intersection of South Avenue (Rt. 124) and Gerdes Road near Exit 37 on the Merritt Parkway; the other, near Exit 38, not far from the intersection of Route 123 and Carter Street (the intersection itself, like the exit ramp, is just over the line in Norwalk, according to this map).
Town officials would like to put a third welcome sign up on Old Stamford Road near the ramps for Exit 36 (an the area located somewhere south of the intersection of Old Stamford Road and Jeliff Mill Road on a map), but they expect to need to get approval from state officials on where exactly to put the sign, Mann said.
The New Canaan Beautification League has agreed to care for flowers and other plants around the signs, which will be emplanted in spots where the league already maintains plants and flowers, Mann said.
“This is well worth the cost,” Selectman Nick Williams said before the unanimous vote (he and First Selectman Robert Mallozzi were the only board members present for the Tuesday morning meeting). “Most towns have something similar.”
Mallozzi, who has promoted the idea to put up the signs, pointed out that a town study in 2005 recommended welcome signs, as did the town’s Plan of Conservation and Development.
Keith Simpson, a landscape architect in town, helped town officials decide on placement and overall design, Mann told the board. Norwalk Signs is expected to build the welcome signs.
Correction: Exit 36 was erroneously called “Exit 39” in an earlier version of this article.
Welcome to New Canaan — the second sign what exit!!! You have been here for years and don’t know the exit #. Exit 36 is better than one mentioned
Thank-you, Marvin. I’ve corrected the exit number. While I’ve been in Darien for years and have used the exit, off and on, for a long time, I can’t recall ever having to think about the number.
Having a traffic sign opposite the north-bound exit 36 that points the direction to town and to Talmadge Hill Station would be helpful to help motorists.