County tourism boosters discussed the new decorative banners the board plans to install in uptown Wadesboro as the first tangible step in the county’s new branding project during the Anson County Tourism Development Authority’s meeting March 9.
The board plans to purchase banners to hang from lampposts across the uptown area. Although the board is currently focusing on buying three seasons’ worth of banners, it ultimately plans to have designs for each season. The banners will be purchased through a public-private partnership, with area business owners paying for the banners and the town hanging them up each season.
Fall banners could potentially advertise the town’s annual PeopleFest.
The new banners will be six feet tall and 30 inches wide, and incorporate the county’s new brand into the design. They were designed by H. L. Bizzell of Bizzell Design, Inc., the company the tourism board is working with on the branding and wayfinding sign project. The banners are reusable and will be displayed in future years, Boothby said.
“It’s going to be a real affordable thing, and for folks to be involved in this, a business or an individual who wants to be a part of it, we’re looking at somewhere between $200-300 of a charitable donation there,” board Chairman Jeff Boothby said. “We will see these, and with that investment-slash-donation, that will get us through all three remaining seasons and will probably also cover winter next year. So these will carry us through to July 4, when we’ll have the next banner come out, and then as we go into the fall, they’ll change again. And then going into winter and around the holiday season, it will be changed again for a winter-type banner.”
Lewis Evans, a tourism board member working closely with Bizzell, said a donation of $310 per each of the 24 signs will purchase three seasons’ worth of banners. The winter banners will not cost much even if purchased later in a separate order, Evans said, or the entire project would cost about $360 for four seasons per light pole. He described the banners as having a “silky” texture.
Both the county commissioners and the Wadesboro Town Council approved of the new brand during meetings earlier this year, although neither immediately pledged funds to the project.
HISTORICAL MARKERS
The Anson County Historical Society plans to place Civil War historical markers throughout the county.
Tommy Allen, president of the historical society, said the organization has met with landowners and has gotten permission from all of them to place the signs on their property.
Allen did not have a funding proposal for the board’s March meeting.
Boothby said the project will work well with the county’s new brand.
“I don’t think it would be hard for when you have the proposal for the TDA to say, ‘Yeah, I support this,’” Boothby said. “It’s something that has brought people in with our wayfinding and branding. Part of the emphasis is on take a road trip to Anson County, buy some gas and something to eat, at least. This goes right in line with that and I think that there’ll be a lot of people in the county that it will go favorably with.”
Boothby provided Allen with the contact information for Buzz Bizzell of Bizzell Design, the company working with the TDA on the county branding and wayfinding sign project, as the society will look into sign options.
Allen also said the society will look into relocating some of the current historical markers as some are in locations that are difficult for motorists to stop to read the signs.
The board discussed the historical signs more in closed session.
The tourism board will hold its next regular meeting at noon April 13 at the Anson County Chamber of Commerce.
Reach reporter Imari Scarbrough at 704-994-5471 and follow her on Twitter @ImariScarbrough.