SOUTHWICK – With the town crier digital bulletin board at the corner of College Highway and Feeding Hills Road not always in working order and the regional school district asking the Select Board to consider installing an electronic billboard at the entrance to Southwick Regional School, the board has been discussing options for both.
“They would like to entertain the idea of putting a digital sign at the Southwick Regional School to replace the existing manual sign and they want to do it and make it available for use by the town as a whole,” said board member Douglas Moglin at the board’s Dec. 8 meeting referring to the Southwick-Tolland-Granville Regional School District School Committee’s request.
He said the committee’s idea was to have the sign at SRS be “supplemental” to the town crier, which is located beside Berkshire Bank.
But, he added, the town crier sign doesn’t have the capability to convey a lot of information.
“These signs have gotten way less expensive than they used to be and you can convey a ton of information and you can update them in a heartbeat,” Moglin said at that meeting.
Board member Russ Anderson, who served as the town’s fire chief, said he and former police chief Kevin Bishop had considered having one installed at the town’s public safety complex and they had learned a few things about them.
“The only rule of thumb is don’t go cheap,” Anderson said.
And they aren’t.
Moglin got a few quotes on different size electronic signs with different resolutions and the prices ranged between $25,000 and $70,000.
Moglin said there is an electronic billboard that has been offered to the town to replace the static sign currently at the public safety complex, “but it’s more of an outdoor display.”
However, he said if that was installed and the board decided to replace it with a digital display, “you would already have the [electrical] work done.”
At the board’s Dec. 29 meeting Moglin said he thought the entrance to SRS would be a good place for the sign.
“The traffic counts of folks coming and going from that school during the school year is quite good, and it would be a good use of that sign to alert people of things that are going on,” he said.
Anderson said he wasn’t against putting the sign there but suggested updating the town crier sign.
“Is there a way technology could do both signs,” he asked, adding that having the electronic signs working in both locations would catch all the traffic through town.
Moglin was sure that could be done.
Board member Diane Gale said she was thinking, like Anderson, about replacing the town crier, but she thought replacing the sign in front of the Public Library might be a better site.
“We have the opportunity, with the library, to upgrade theirs at the same time as the Town Crier.
Gale then offered her “final thought” on the issue.
“I guess from the school budget point of view, I’d be asking is an electronic sign going to increase the educational quality and draw more students to the school versus the sign [there now],” she said.
Moglin said only the school committee could answer that, but as he’s driven across the state, he’s seen plenty of schools with the electronic messaging signs.
Then he added another consideration for the town crier sign asking if it has “outlived its usefulness” at his current location.
“Maybe it should be closer to Town Hall,” he said.
The discussion will continue at the board’s meeting on Monday, Jan. 5.
