Signs of Progress: Hazel Park Spruces Up with New Signage
(Mark H. Stowers, April 6, 2024)
Hazel Park, MI – Hazel Park has new signs. Two new ones in fact. One welcomes residents and visitors to its Main Street District. The other new one is a digital marquee the Parks and Rec Department had erected to promote the department and other city services. The first new sign has been in the plans for nearly a year and will have a sister sign on the south end of John R. Road as well in the future.
“It’s not quite a marque, it’s a welcome to our main street,” Hazel Park Planning & Community Development Director James Finkley explained. “Our designated Main Street is John R. between 8 Mile and 10 Mile.”
The new sign is just over nine feet tall and one foot wide.
“It’s intended to welcome people into our designated “Main Street” district of John R Rd., with a similar sign eventually planned for the south end of John R Rd. as well,” Hinkley said. “The City of Hazel Park, Main Street Hazel Park, the Hazel Park Downtown Development Authority, Ideation Orange and the City of Hazel Park have all played vital roles in bringing this project to life. From the start of the design process until now, it’s been nearly a year.”
The sign is a smaller metal version of the City of Hazel Park sign at Nine Mile and John R. Roads. The new sign is at the corner of Mahan and John R.
“The sign has vinyl PVC letter, it will say ‘Main Street Hazel Park’ on one side and the other side says, ‘You Belong Here,’” Finkley said. “The second sign will take significantly longer to bring to life, due to the many additional requirements for that site as part of a federal grant project.”
The digital sign from Signorama is at the Parks and Rec building, replacing a decades old marquee with fading graphics and plastic lettering. The new sign boasts the city’s current logo, approved in 2020. Sareen Papakhian, Director of Recreation, is learning all of the benefits and how to best use the new sign.
“That was part of a grant we were awarded and it was ordered last fall and had to wait for some outstanding parts. It was installed a few weeks ago and replaced a very vintage old sign that had been on site for a long time,” Papakhian said.
Learning how to use the sign is the first business to get done. Currently, the sign is promoting Parks and Rec programming and giving the date, time and weather.
“First and foremost, we promote our programming and we will figure out how to promote other city business,” she said. “We’re very grateful. We’ve wanted a new sign for a long time.”
Signs of the times, the new signs in Hazel Park are here to welcome and inform all those who visit the “Friendly City.”
Learn more about the City of Hazel Park at https://www.hazelpark.org/
