Blue Signs in the Paper Today
This is the article ran on the FRONT PAGE of the Northwest Florida Daily News. Not in the local and state section, but the FRONT PAGE!
Bravo - Keep the heat on! Those signs are awful looking.
WALTON COUNTY
Opponents flood TDC sign meeting
By ANDY MEINEN
andym@nwfdailynews.com
SANTA ROSA BEACH ? Many of the 70-plus people who jammed Wednesday?s workshop to discuss the large blue signs on Walton County Road 30A wore their opinions openly.
Signs that read ?The Big Blue Monsters Must Go? were stuck on their chests and backs to show disdain for the directional and community markers the county?s Tourist Development Council installed late last year.
And for most at the sometimes raucous two-hour meeting at the Coastal Branch Library, there seemed to be only one suggestion: Remove the signs at any cost.
?This is why we are here. You have our answer,? said Grayton Beach resident Karen Monroe, one of many who believed their calls to remove the signs were not being taken seriously.
TDC spokeswoman Tracy Louthain reminded everyone to keep an open mind after grumpy murmurs spread from the crowd.
?We really want this to be a productive meeting tonight,? she said. The TDC set up the workshop to get ideas about what should be done with the metal signs. The agency?s staff was on hand to write down suggestions. They ranged from selling the signs to Disney World to changing the material of the markers to planting palm trees behind the signs to help them blend into the environment.
Dave Rauschkolb, a member of the Scenic Pride Initiative, a group trying to get the signs removed, said the TDC missed its mark.
?We don?t dispute anything the TDC does except for these signs,? he told the agency?s representatives.
The TDC bought 49 signs for about $260,000 to be placed throughout the county and in the various beach communities along CR 30A.
Sonny Mares, the TDC?s interim executive director, said the signs are part of the council?s marketing and branding efforts to establish South Walton as a premier vacation destination. He said the signs are part of an overall ?family of signs? that will help visitors recognize the area.
Rauschkolb said locals, along with TDC staff and council members, are a family that usually has what is best for South Walton at heart.
?I think some of us think it is a dysfunctional family of signs,? he said. ?Sometimes with families, we don?t agree. And this is one instance that we don?t agree, and hopefully we can come to some positive conclusion to put this all behind us.?
Not everyone is upset with the signs, but voices of approval were few. Theo Farnsworth of Point Washington said after the meeting that the signs help visitors.
?Traffic flows so much better (on CR 30A) because they (visitors) know where they are going,? he said.
The TDC board will address the markers at its next meeting at 9 a.m. April 9, said Mares. He said the meeting could be moved from the TDC?s office to the library to handle the crowd.
TDC board member John Gills attended Wednesday?s meeting and said he and other council members will review the suggestions made at the workshop. When pressed for his stand, he said that he?d have to listen to his fellow board members.
End of Story
My biggest question is who at the TDC is so damn insistent on changing the "Brand" of the Beaches of South Walton? The current campaign is award willing, classy and the message So Walers want out there.???
Where did this person come from? Is there someone new that is trying to fix something that is not broke?
I couldn't be there
- single parenting a sick child, but it looks like a great turnout
It was directly for the article and was a quote of Theo Farnsworth. I'll edit!