Kennett Township supervisors gave the green light Wednesday to update five tourist signs in the township.
The township will enter into an agreement with Chester County Tourism to create a “signing district” within the municipal borders and to replace the existing tourist-oriented directional signs, or wayfaring signs, with newer, more uniform ones.
Susan Hamley, the executive director of Chester County Tourism (the conference and visitors bureau), told supervisors that the current signs are out of compliance with PennDOT regulations and are either faded, too low to the ground, too overcrowded, containing too many characters, or hidden by vegetation along the roads. Many were installed more than three decades ago.
Those signs in Kennett Township alert drivers to places like Longwood Gardens, the Brandywine River Museum, the visitors’ bureau, Chadds Ford Winery, museums and gardens in Delaware, downtown Kennett Square, and the Galer estate winery. Three of the signs are on Route 1; one is on Route 52; and another is on Kennett Pike.
The replacement signs will be larger on bigger roads and smaller on smaller roads, she said. They will be blue, with a heading at the top that resembles a rolling river, and text that lets people know which attractions are nearby.
“We’ve managed the program since its inception” nine years ago, Hamley said, explaining that PennDOT is requiring each municipality in which the signs appear to become a “signing district.” “We will continue to manage this.”
She said Chester County Conference and Visitors Bureau wants to focus first on replacing signs along the Route 1 corridor and in West Chester. The tourist-oriented directional sign program is one the bureau has done with the greater Wilmington area. After the Delaware Department of Transportation ordered Wilmington to remove their signs, they have already been replaced, Hamley added.
The sign replacement program will cost nothing for Kennett Township. The goal is to continue to grow tourism in the area.
According to a presentation Hamley made to the supervisors, the tourist attractions will be “requested to sign an agreement to pay a nominal annual maintenance fee.”
“These are the kinds of places that serve the tourism world,” Hamley said. “We’re trying to get people to come here, enjoy our county, treasure it, stay overnight, and return.”
PennDOT is expected to review the final design of the signs in the fall. Between fall and March, Chester County Tourism is expected to seek quotes for the signs, have them made, notify the municipalities, and have them installed.
About Monica Fragale
Monica Thompson Fragale is a freelance reporter who spent her life dreaming of being in the newspaper business. That dream came true after college when she started working at The Kennett Paper and, years later The Reporter newspaper in Lansdale and other dailies. She turned to non-profit work after her first daughter was born and spent the next 13 years in that field. But while you can take the girl out of journalism, you can’t take journalism out of the girl. Offers to freelance sparked the writing bug again started her fingers happily tapping away on the keyboard. Monica lives with her husband and two children in Kennett Square.
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