The three Walk of Stars signs on wooden teepee structures along highways leading into Merritt will be removed this summer.
City council approved a motion at its regular meeting on April 8 to remove the signs and see what kind of shape the “Welcome to Merritt” signs underneath are in. If those signs are in rough shape too, then just the wooden teepee structures holding the signs will be left up.
Whether new signs designed to fit with the city’s new destination branding will go up on the same teepee structures or entirely new structures remains to be seen.
“We can’t leave those signs up as they are for another year. We just simply can’t,” Coun. Mike Goetz said at the council meeting. “It’s an embarrassment. Alan Jackson is a white blob, for God’s sake.”
Goetz made the motion as council went over eight recommendations from the city’s Directional Signage Committee.
Removing those signs will be a short-term solution until council figures out long-term plans for the signs — the biggest of which will be whether to repair or replace those signs and the teepee structures they stand on.
Committee member Coun. Kurt Christopherson said the purpose of the recommendations is to give council more information, rather than have them choose right away whether to repair or replace the signs.
Coun. Harry Kroeker said he couldn’t support repairing the signs and was in favour of replacing them.
Council passed Kroeker’s motion that staff get quotes on options for design and associated costs, with Coun. Neil Menard’s amendment of a 30-day deadline.
“I don’t have a problem with [Kroeker’s] motion, but the intent of seeing if they could be repaired is for this summer for the tourist traffic,” Christopherson told council. “So now, if we’re going the long route to redesign and everything else, what’s going to happen with the signs this year and perhaps for the next couple years? Are we going to be stuck with the same ill-looking stuff that’s out there already?
“I don’t want to see the signs out on the highway the same way they’ve been in the last five years — a deplorable state,” he said.
Acting Chief Administrative Officer Larry Plotnikoff said repairing the signs would buy council some time if it chose to go ahead with a potentially lengthy redesign and replacement process.
“If we’re looking at replacing the signs, that’s a little bit more of a process because you’d be looking at different designs. Council would have to consider that as well as the cost and what materials would be utilized, and how it would be portrayed,” Plotnikoff told council. “That could be a fairly lengthy process given the size of those signs, as well.”
If new structures or signs do eventually go up, they must stay within the cement pad that the current ones rest on. Plotnikoff told council the Ministry of Highways stipulates that the signs must stay on the concrete pad of the original signs or the city risks losing the land they stand on.
Another recommendation put forward by the committee was to repaint the lettering of “Country music capital of Canada” on the archway on Voght Street.
Goetz said it doesn’t make sense to refresh the paint on that slogan as the slogan will soon be replaced once the city’s rebrand is complete.
“I would table this until we have our branding process done,” Goetz said, deferring that recommendation.
Other recommendations included placing new signs to direct traffic to the Nicola Valley Museum and Archives, art gallery and Hall of Fame.
Coun. Dave Baker said he wanted council to ask for costs of creating those signs before moving on any of the recommendations.
“Before we go any further or before I can support any of this, I am going to have to ask for some costs,” he said.
Another recommendation suggested signs indicating city facilities such as the Aquatic Centre and arena.
Menard asked about improving signage to the rodeo grounds, while Coun. Clara Norgaard asked about a kiosk off the highways to direct people downtown.
Plotnikoff said the committee has an inventory of the city’s current signage and instead of doing piecemeal recommendations, should look at the big picture, including a comprehensive plan for which signs to add, where to place them and how much they’ll cost.
Christopherson reiterated that the recommendations were simply a starting point, and indicated he’d like to see public input on what course council should take with the signs.
