opinion

New digital sign turns up community commentary in Mid-Valley

Thursday, a vertical electronic sign went up on the exterior of the new Park Front office building on Front Street NE in downtown Salem.

The more than 130-square-foot sign features bright colors, and has led some to speculate that it could distract from the quiet riverfront views the city has worked to build over the years.

Salem Sign Company Inc., hired by one of the building's owners, former Salem City Councilor T.J. Sullivan, to build the sign, says the digital display adjacent to Salem's Riverfront Park complies fully with the city's sign ordinances, and is not required to be turned off at night.

It is computer programmed and capable of being dimmed or shut off completely. This should assuage concerns about it casting artificial light on events such as the annual fireworks display.

No one wants the city's riverfront to become a garish blur of digital, Vegas-style lights.

Sullivan agrees. He believes the sign will be an asset to the community and hopes that when Salem has some of its gray, rainy days and the "sky feels so low it is oppressive that the community has something beautiful to look at," even if it's only for a few seconds.

The sign features eight different images including advertising for Park Front, Rich Duncan Construction, the building contractor, Salem Sign Company, Sullivan's business, Huggins Insurance, and Doneth & Sturdivant Wealth Advisors. There are also a couple of images of waterfalls and a mountain.

The colors of the lettered and logoed advertising are muted, but the pictures project bold pink, blue, yellow, and green colors. They cannot be changed more than once every eight seconds, so it's not jarring or strobe-like, said Corey Spady of Salem Sign Company.

He said Sullivan took extra efforts to ensure that the sign met brightness standards and is only using about half of its brightness capability.

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While it's only been up a short while, Sullivan said he has already received an "overwhelming amount of positive comments" on the sign. He said he would work with Salem Sign to determine what impact turning the sign off nightly would have on the lifespan of the display.

Spady said there is often knee-jerk reaction to a digital display, and he anticipated there would be sign naysayers. But we remember when digital billboards first went up in the city in 2008 and the sign code had to be revised because it was written in the '60s, and light-emitting diodes (LED) were not even imagined at the time.

There was much gnashing of teeth and pulling of hair until public hearings were held and some of the community could weigh in on the issue.

Sullivan is confident that because the Park Front sign does not abut a residential area, neighborhood issues will be few.

The sign, in a highly visible spot, will feature community messages around the holidays from Huggins Insurance, and it will promote local artists as well, Sullivan said.

We trust he'll be a good neighbor and keep it in the dark, when appropriate.