Welcome to Houlton sign unveiled

    HOULTON — By now most have seen the new “Welcome to Houlton” sign, with the electronic message center, that has been installed adjacent to Dunn Furniture Company.
    According to Jon McLaughlin, executive director of SADC, “This sign was a project of the Southern Aroostook Development Corporation and was started by one of our board members and long time Houlton businessman, Dallas Henderson. Unfortunately, not too long into the project, Dallas passed away.  We continued his dream and have made it a reality.”
    Now that it has been up awhile, there have been several comments about the sign and why it is where it is at. Some have said it is hard to read going north or south on North Street. The sign is situated to give the folks getting off Exit 302 of the Interstate a direct view while sitting at the stoplight. Its messages will be of events and items that potentially involve the entire town and its arrow points to the historic downtown, all in attempt to direct people to our community.
    The electronic message center is controlled from the Houlton town office. A policy has been developed for the acceptable uses for the message center. In short, messages will be of the nature that the events displayed will be of benefit to the majority of the town and its residents. Examples would be “Welcome to Houlton, Shriners” had the sign been in operation at that time. It will not be used for private business messages nor for general public announcements 
    McLaughlin went on to say, “This sign is something that has been requested for years by local business and town officials, but was always unattainable until almost four years ago when SADC started working in collaboration with the town, Dunn’s and the MDOT. It will be very beneficial to announcing important events and SADC wants to thank the 42 people that have donated to the sign’s cost to date. We also want to thank Steelstone Industries, Dickison and London, Swallow’s Electric, the Houlton Water Company and Grand Rental for contributing labor, services and/or materials for the sign base. The sign’s cost was $39,000. We are still fund raising for the sign as we are $4,600 short of our goal.”
    People may make a tax-deductible contribution to the sign by making out a check to the ‘Town of Houlton – Memorial Sign’ and sending it to the town at 21 Water Street, Houlton, ME 04730.
    There will be a formal ribbon cutting ceremony later in the summer at which time all investors in the sign will be formally acknowledged.