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The Oswego Village Board has given the green light to plans to upgrade the message board sign at Oswego High School to keep up with technology advances.
At the Dec. 12 Village Board meeting, trustees approved granting a zoning variance to allow for a message board sign with a scrolling effect and a multi-color display on the existing ground sign.
The marquee was installed in 1984 and its electronic message center was replaced in 2004. At the July 31 Oswego School Board meeting, board members voted to award a $53,577 contract to Warrenville-based Aurora Sign Company, which installed the original marquee.
“It’s so outdated that if any of the major internal parts of it were to malfunction, we’d have to replace the whole thing anyway,” Oswego High School Principal Christopher Grays had told school board members at their July 10 meeting. “A lot has changed since 2004, technologically, so this is just a preventative, proactive measure we’re taking to ensure that we’re not only meeting the needs of our community with regards to communication, but also just being proactive. We would hate for anything to happen where we weren’t expecting it and for our marquee to not be functioning for months at a time.”
The price includes replacement of the electronic message center and updating/modifying the frame. The administration made the recommendation in part because it would require the least modification to the current marquee and that Aurora Sign Company is familiar with the product because it installed the original marquee.
Grays said the upgrade will also give the high school the ability to do more and different types of messages such as videos and animation, which could also be used as a district communication tool as the district doesn’t have an electronic marquee at its district office.
“Our marquee is a central communication point for many of our families and community members, and affords us an opportunity to celebrate the many accomplishments throughout the district,” Grays said.