Local artist designs logo for town's new street signs
By Ken Powers Community Reporter

Artist Ed Turner displays one of the Westborough street signs with the logo he designed. KEN POWERS

Westborough - Street signs with a flavor unique to Westborough will be on display beginning this summer.

The U.S. Department of Transportation is requiring all cities and towns in the country to update all public roadway signs to conform with a recently approved mandate that requires, among other things, that the lettering on the signs be larger and easier to read.

As a result of the federal mandate, Westborough has developed maroon signs with white lettering. Included on each sign is the sketch of a two-seat sleigh. The manufacture of the two-seat sleigh was a vital industry in Westborough when it became a town, back in 1717.

The sketch of the sleigh is the handiwork of local artist Ed Turner, who owns and operates the Art and Frame Emporium, located in the Westborough Shopping Center. Turner has also served for many years as the political cartoonist for the Community Advocate.

"The sketch of the sleigh was actually just one part of a much bigger concept that Jackie Tidman, who was chairman of the Westborough Historical Commission at the time, and I came up with," Turner said.

Turner said the entire concept featured six different sketches for six distinct parts of the town, including the mill area, the manufacturing part of town (signs with the sleigh would have been put up here), and the neighborhood where Eli Whitney, the inventor of the cotton gin, grew up.

"Ed did a terrific job with the designs," Tidman said. "The way he took it from concept to final product was amazing to watch and really a lot of fun to be involved with. Ed put a lot of time and eff ort into his artwork for the project and I think that really showed through."

Rather than all six designs, the selectmen decided on one.

"During the process of presenting the concept and the diff erent sketches to the Board of Selectmen, one of the selectmen decided the sleigh looked 'pretty,'" Turner said. "As soon as one person said that, everyone else agreed and the idea stuck. In the end, as much as they liked street signs

the six-sketch concept, they really liked the sleigh sketch and voted unanimously to have that one put on all of the signs."

Turner said he finished the sketch and sent it forward about two years ago.

Under the guidance of Director John Walden, the Department of Public Works will begin installing the signs in the next couple of months.

Turner said he had a couple of the signs shipped to his store so he can keep them as part of his portfolio. One of those signs is for Warren Street, the street in town where his parents live.

"It was fun to be involved with something that is so clearly unique to Westborough," Turner said. "Most towns are just putting their seal on the street signs. It's nice to have been able to come up with a sign design that no other town in the state will have."