Carpentersville OKs new welcome signs

The entryway signs Carpentersville trustees selected this week will add to the village's aesthetic, improve the streetscape and enhance select commercial corridors.

What they won't do, trustees learned Tuesday, is hold up during a suicide attempt.

Trustees approved a contract with Schaumburg-based QT Signs to construct and landscape five entryway welcome signs with a price tag of more than $60,000.

Economic Development Director Janice Murphy said a $36,000 Kane County Riverboat Grant the village received last August, as well as $27,000 from the current fiscal year budget.

The new signs, which are expected to be completed by February, will greet drivers entering the village at the north and south ends of Route 25, the south entrance of Route 31, south on Randall Road and the west entry point on Huntley Road.

Village President Bill Sarto said the village board chose a two-pillar design with sandstone-colored blocks with a masonry center housing the welcome sign.

The materials are simulated brick and stone since the signs are located on state right-of-ways, which require breakaway construction -- or the ability to break apart when struck, Murphy said.

But Bill Chase, a representative from QT Signs, said the signs look exactly like real brick and stone.

He told trustees Tuesday that a woman once attempted suicide by crashing into a welcome sign in Rolling Meadows, thinking the sign was made of brick and stone.

But the wall crumbled when the vehicle hit the wall and the driver escaped unharmed.

"That's how real it looks," Chase said.