A deal has been reached as to where a Welcome to Terrace sign is going to be placed on the Hwy16 approach to the city from the east.
Barring any unforeseen problems, it will soon be erected on Hwy16 just west of the Hwy16/37 four-way stop in the location where signs promoting seasonal events are now placed.
With the Terrace sign going on the north side of the highway, right across on its south side, motorists might soon see a Thornhill welcome side.
The Terrace sign location is still within Thornhill and while that doesn’t make Thornhill regional district director Ted Ramsey terribly happy, he’s accepted the proposed location.
It was Ramsey who touched off a controversy about where welcome signs should be located by objecting to the placement of a Terrace welcome sign in Thornhill near the Costa Lessa Motel.
Ramsey opposed having a Terrace sign there, saying it should more properly be in Terrace itself and eventually the city removed it.
“You could call it a compromise,” said Ramsey of the planned Terrace sign location and that of a proposed Thornhill one.
“Terrace will get one on the north side and Thornhill will have one on the southside.”
He said he and regional district staff came to the conclusion that because of the topography and roadside conditions leading into Terrace from the four-way stop, the best spot for a Welcome to Terrace sign is where seasonal events ones are now posted.
“Is it a good place? Absolutely. Is it the right place. No. But it is a compromise,” Ramsey said.
Officials from the regional district, the city and the transportation ministry visited the favoured location June 29 to discuss exact placement and other details. The transportation ministry needs to grant a permit and has already told the city it anticipates no problems.
The city’s welcome sign to be placed there is the same one it removed from near the Costa Lessa Motel last fall. It has since been refurbished.
“It will be set in place using a crane truck and will likely cost around $1,000 depending on what site works may be required to place the sign,” said city works director Rob Schibli.
In the meantime, Ramsey said the wood has been purchased for the Welcome to Thornhill sign to go across Hwy16 from the Terrace one.
It’ll be the second of three planned Thornhill welcome signs.
The first, depicting a horse logger, went up earlier this year at the location where the Welcome to Terrace sign used to be.
A design for this second one has yet to be determined but Ramsey says there are suggestions it could be a riverboat given that was a dominant form of transportation in the late 1800s and early 1900s.
“There’s some history there because it’s close to the river,” he said.