By Genevieve Jinson, Community Reporter
Northborough ?Two members of the Northborough Lions Club met with the Board of Selectmen May 21 to outline a plan for a new message board that the Lions Club maintains in the center of town. The selectmen unanimously supported the proposal presented by Lions Club President Ron Aspero and Michael Daly, who is the chair of the Lions Club sign committee.
“With the ongoing [road] alterations in the center of town, the Lions Club thought it was appropriate to bring the sign into the 21stcentury,” Daly said.
“We are going to upgrade the sign, continue to make it a community sign, and continue to maintain it,” he added.
The club first went before the board in 1980 to obtain approval for a sign that could be used for informational purposes. The board at that time unanimously approved the location and the Lions Club has maintained that same sign for approximately 31 years.
The current sign, which must be changed manually, will be replaced with a new electronic sign.
“The process … has been sometimes difficult. Sometimes it works fine, and sometimes it doesn's,” Daly said of the manual sign.
The new electronic sign will be in the same location and will be approximately the same size as the old one.
“In terms of visibility, if anything [the new sign] will be elevated,” Aspero said. “All in all, the scope of the size is pretty much the same.”
One of the major benefits of the upgraded sign is that organizations in town will have better access to the sign when they want to post a message. Any organization or individual will be able to go onto the Northborough Lions Club website http://e-clubhouse.org/sites/northborolionsma/ and submit a request to post information. The new sign will also allow for more than one organization to post a message at a time.
The club will also permit the Police and Fire departments to have direct access to the sign in order to display emergency information as well as Amber Alerts ™.
Selectman William Pantazis noted his approval of the plan.
“I think this is a great idea; it's awesome, especially for emergencies like police and fire and things going on in the town,” he said.
