Finance Committee - 4/4/2018 Page 13
Alderwoman Kelly
| Know you mentioned the durability of the last round of signs, what are we doing to make sure that the new
signs are going to be around for a lot longer?
Mr. Vayo
That’s a great question. The technology over the last 12 years has changed significantly. The original signs
were lettered and painted with machine so they would be spray painted on an aluminum base and then
assembled on the site. The new signs use a 3M technology that is used for many new roadway signs. It is
basically a highly reflective geometric sheet of vinyl that is sticky on the back and it gets mounted on to a sheet
of aluminum. The front side of it receives paint or ink from like an inkjet printer kind-of-style machine that is
very wide and can print very large signs.
What will happen is that the fabricator will print out the sign package based on the sign package that was put
together by Greenman Pedersen and they will mount them to aluminum sheets and then pair them up with the
appropriate pole type to mount it to the ground once they are shipped to Nashua. Something that is kind of
cool and unique about the signs today that didn’t exist in old signs is that when a car is driving towards it at
night or after twilight, the sign will emblazon it will light up from the reflectivity of the material which is pretty
unique.
Alderwoman Kelly
You seem to know a lot about it. Do we have a life expectancy? Do you know how long they are typically will
last with this new technology?
Mr. Vayo
What happens over time with the ink is that the color fades and so some of the signs that face south will color
fade faster than the signs that face north. But the underlying equipment, the black painted poles will be of a
similar quality as to the poles and street lights that were installed on Main Street. So they are a pretty high-
quality product and they should be durable for many years, decades. Then the aluminum sheet sign, if some
of them fade over time replacement of the sheet and the panel itself separate from the pole and installation
would be a much smaller project. So one of the benefits of the sign package is that over time we have the
flexibility to update signs if we want to with a very limited financial and labor impact. If | had to guess, another
12 years for the 3M part of the sign, the poles should last longer. If we want to update a sign because say we
built a new performing venue on Main Street, we’d be able to update some of the signs.
Alderwoman Kelly
Thank you.
Alderman O’Brien
Thank you. I’m looking at some of the art work, | think you did a wonderful job. | see there is quite a contrast
from what we have right now so it’s going to be white lettering on a black face so it will pronounce itself to
really hit what we want the people to respond to. And | do like the logo with the cityscape and everything. So |
think you did a good job in designing them.
Mr. Vayo
| can’t take any credit for that, Greenman Pedersen did a great job shepherding the process and gathering
input from our steering group that really oversaw the design process.
