The city of Beaver Creek will soon have new “Welcome to Beaver Creek” signs at two community entrances.
Andrew Blank has been working on the project and brought three design options to the Beaver Creek City Council meeting Wednesday, March 9, for consideration.
All three designs featured sketches of a beaver and a “Welcome to Beaver Creek” message, but council members ultimately chose one with neutral colors and a larger image of the beaver.
The other two versions had smaller sketches that might not be visible to passing motorists, and the lettering was blue and red, which they associated with Hills-Beaver Creek School District’s blue and red colors.
“I think you should stay away from that, just for the simple fact that this is just Beaver Creek,” Blank said.
“I’m a Patriot, my kids are Patriots, I’m all for Patriots, but this is one thing that we can really own that is ours.”
He’s been fundraising to offset costs for the city and so far has approached local business owners about donating between $25 and $100 toward the community welcome signs.
“I had really good response, actually, from a lot of them,” Blank said. “I had them look at the three options, asked them to initial the ones they liked the most.”
Most of them liked the design with the larger beaver sketch and the neutral colors.
“I like that one, too,” said council member Pat Bender. “That really stands out to me also.”
Blank initially proposed two signs, but considering the angle of County Road 4, he suggested a V-sign would be visible to both eastbound and westbound motorists.
Dysthe suggested a two-sided sign rather than a V-sign at that location. He said this would cover the supports on the back sides of the signs and they would share the same posts, which would be easier to mow around.
At an earlier meeting council had initially approved two signs at approximately $1,000 to $1,400, but a third sign would increase costs to over $1,400, possibly up to $2,000.
Blank said he believed there was adequate support in the community to raise funds for the signs, and the city could publicly recognize the donors after the signs are up.
The council voted to approve the three signs in the design with neutral colors and the larger beaver sketch.
Quality Printing can complete the signs in 10 days once the council gives the nod to begin printing. They’ll be erected once the ground thaws enough for posts to go up.
The 4-by-8 outdoor, hard surface signs have a reputation of lasting roughly 10 years.
“Thank you for doing this, Andrew,” Bender said. “It’s very nice. They do good work at Quality Printing. These are really nice. We’re lucky to have them.”