Efforts have been underway to design signage for Enid.
Two new entryway signs have been constructed on South U.S. 81 and on East Garriott, near 30th.
“The updated designs continue to reinforce our brand, and there’s more to come,” City Manager Jerald Gilbert said. “Our hope is the new color entryway signs will be one way to welcome individuals to our community, and remind motorists that Enid is a community overflowing with boundless opportunities, building on an original heritage and pulsing with a vibrant quality of life.”
The entryway signs have been an ongoing project for many years, Ward 5 Commissioner Tammy Wilson said during a study session meeting Tuesday.
“We tried to bid out signs years ago,” she said.
Gilbert said it has been a multiple-year project.
“I think everybody’s very pleased with where we ended up because we ended up with, I think, the best solution for the least amount of money,” he said.
Mayor Bill Shewey questioned what the plan is for the other two entryway signs. Gilbert said those could be addressed later this year, or next budget year.
Enid First Team — made up of the city of Enid, Visit Enid, Greater Enid Chamber of Com merce, Enid Regional Development Alliance and Main Street Enid — has been working on wayfinding signage for Enid.
Corbin Design, of Traverse City, Mich., was hired as a consultant on the project.
“They are one of the country’s leading experts in wayfinding signage,” ERDA Associate Director Lisa Powell told the city commission in the study session Tuesday.
Enid First Team believes wayfinding signage will benefit Enid by increasing sales and sales tax revenue to many of the cultural venues and retail establishments. It also will consolidate and remove duplicate and outdated signage, she said.
“We have a lot of unnecessary signs, or outdated signs or duplicate signs, and so we really hope that this is an effort to clean up some of that as well,” Powell said.
It also is believed wayfinding signage will increase general traffic into some areas, improve the visitor experience overall, do some incidental marketing, increase local pride in the community and help create a sense of place, she said.
The entryway signs were added to the scope of work, which saved the city $80,000 off the original cost of those signs, Powell said.
An initial cost estimate from Corbin Design — based on national costs — to hire someone to install and design the wayfinding signs was more than $500,000. Enid First Team members began talking to statewide fabricators and got the estimated cost down to $350,000. If the city did the installation, it will be around $300,000, and could be reduced even more if the city helps with a lot of the fabrication, she said.
It is anticipated signs would be installed as funds are allocated, Powell said.
There is $15,000 budgeted for signage this year, she said.
Enid First Team wants to present the entire system to the city commission for acceptance in January, along with a budget item for funding, Powell said.
STORY BY: ENID NEWS & EAGLE
WRITTEN BY: JESSICA MILLER
