Namesake sign may receive a facelift in Encinitas

The lighted, gateway sign that’s welcomed Coast Highway 101 travelers to the city’s downtown for more than two decades may receive a facelift.

A funding request up for approval at Wednesday’s City Council meeting calls for replacing the sign’s corroded “ENCINITAS” letters and converting the lighting to an LED system.

Erected in 2001 to “reflect the city’s rich history and coastal culture,” the huge, hanging sign has only received minor repairs, plus an annual power washing, since 2014, city records indicate.

Replacing the lettering is estimated to cost about $47,600, while the LED conversion project is forecasted to be about $123,400, and the future annual maintenance expenses are expected to be $28,800, a city staff report produced for Wednesday’s 6 p.m. meeting states.

“The conversion of the gateway sign from neon to LED will enhance energy efficiency, reduce maintenance costs, improve visibility and attractiveness and improve reliability as LED lighting consumes less power and has a longer lifespan,” the report states. “The proposed lights are anticipated to last approximately 14 years, running an average of 11 hours per day.”

The proposed contractor — YESCO, a 100-year-old company known for creating the iconic “Welcome to Las Vegas” sign in the 1950s — has determined that it will be more cost-effective to put new letters on the sign, rather than refurbishing the existing ones, the staff report continues.

When the sign was installed in November 2001, a crowd gathered to watch, according to newspaper accounts. Dozens of “anxious onlookers” took photos and worried aloud about the sign’s sturdiness as a city crew hung it onto a new rigid support system, reporter Spencer Soper wrote in a story for the former North County Times.

Onlookers had valid reasons to raise concerns —  a year earlier the city had tried to hang the sign from a cable system, but had to take it down a month later “after strong winds slapped it around like a piñata,” Soper wrote.

Despite that previous installation issue, some onlookers were thrilled to see the sign rising into place in November 2001, calling it a historic event, a “wonderful photographic opportunity” and a symbol of the downtown’s historic importance.

The sign is a replica of one that hung over the coastal highway route in the 1920s and 1930s “when much of downtown Encinitas was first built,” Soper noted in his article.