Residents and visitors to St. Joseph will get a digital greeting as they enter the city. The brick welcome sign near the entrance of the city will be replaced by a digital one. St. Joseph City Council members voted recently to replace the welcome sign along CR 75 with an electronic one.
The community sign will be located at the southwest corner of the intersection of CSAH 75 and College Avenue North/CR 2. It is adjacent to the St. Joseph Gas and Bait complex.
The current sign says “Welcome to St. Joseph.” Elected officials voted to enter a 10-year agreement with Feneis Enterprises Inc. to create an electronic community sign that will say the same thing but with digitally printed vinyl graphics and an electronic message center. The company has 60 days to find four sponsors for the sign. A rough schematic drawing of the sign shows an area for four sponsors near the top of the sign with the electronic message center in the middle and a stone base. A final design has not been approved.
St. Joseph City Administrator Judy Weyrens said construction of the sign is about $100,000. The city has control over the design of the sign and will get 20 seconds per minute to advertise non-profit city sponsors, city events and weather alerts in the electronic message center of the sign.
Weyrens said the timeline for construction of the sign is still unknown. It is contingent on how fast Feneis Enterprises secures sponsors for the project, she said. The sponsors over time will help absorb the cost of the project.
