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Workers took down the iconic Blanchards neon sign on Wednesday. A new sign with a similar design is scheduled to be installed on Thursday.

The neon sign has been in place since the 1960s, said Mike Denson, general manager of Blanchards Wine & Spirits' 741 Centre St. location.

While the sign has become an indelible symbol of Centre/South, at any given time letters wouldn't come on. Denson said the company had spent thousands in repairs over the years to no avail.

"I'm excited to see a sign that works," Denson said.

Barlo Signs of Hudson, N.H. did the work of removing the sign.

But what will happen to the old sign? Both Denson and a worker for Barlo Signs said it will likely be scrapped. Resident Steve Garfield wondered on Facebook if the sign might not find a home at the American Sign Museum in Cincinnati.

Denson said the old sign suffered from snow and rain and that parts of the neon kept going out. There was a two-year city process to get approval for a new sign, he said. The new one will look like the old one except it will no longer have an arrow pointing to the Blanchards parking lot.