Main Street Program Director Tina Israel informed her board that she was considering purchasing banners for downtown light poles during the group’s regular meeting.
“This will probably be our next downtown project goal for the coming year,” explained Israel.
“Purchasing these lamppost banners depends entirely on the pricing once we play around with our logo and see how the design looks best.”
Israel added that she met banner vendor DFEST at a recent Main Street conference.
“We’ll be concentrating on the downtown area first,” she said.
“Then we’ll work on adding them to the highway sides later. This will also probably be a ‘phase in’ sort of project over a few years.”
While emblazoned with the Main Street Program logo, the flags will either be solid or mesh vinyl and can last anywhere from 2-3 years at a time.
“This is in the very early stages of exploration and discussion – I just wanted you all to be aware. After all, it all hinges on how the logo looks,” Israel said.
“But, DFEST also told me that these banners will last longer in our downtown area since it isn’t that windy.”
She added that along with buying the banners, the required mounting hardware would need to be purchased depending on which version was chosen.
Concerns were raised by the board about how the banners would coordinate with the annual Christmas garland decorations.
“That’s something that I’ll have to discuss with Celeste Cash at that time and if we move forward with this idea,” Israel explained.
During her board update, Israel expressed how proud she was of Dec. 16’s “Christmas Around the Square” event.
“I’m very happy to report that I’ve heard lots of positive feedback from the event,” she said.
“I know we were unsure of how changing it up to a one-day event would impact our downtown merchants, but, I’m glad to say that the overall impact was positive.”
Israel added that she was looking at enhancing other event features next year – along with tapping the Bay City Police Department for traffic control.
“I did hear of one traffic incident on Avenue G that night,” she said.
“But, our PD’s response time was quick and we’ll be discussing addressing traffic control for next year and possibly adding more ambient lighting at the Avenue G and 6th Street intersection.”
