Prospect Hts. mayor keeps working on welcome signs

Prospect Heights Mayor Nick Helmer really wants signs to welcome you to his city.

“Signs are important for identity, pride and many other things,” the mayor said in an interview this week, adding that people often don’t know when they are entering the city from larger neighboring suburbs.

But the design he’s proposing got a less-than-enthusiastic response from at least one member of his city council. Alderman Bree Higgins of Ward 5 said she did not like the idea of wooden posts and prefers a brick look.

Helmer said he will keep working on a sign design until he gets council approval. And he expects businesses and clubs will pay for the signs in return for having their names added.

The mayor would like to see at least four signs, including ones at the intersections of Schoenbeck and Palatine roads and Elmhurst Avenue (Route 83), just north of Euclid Avenue, where there is a sign Helmer calls “tired.”

And things could get more complicated because Helmer wants those signs to bear a new slogan for the city: “Where action meets the future.”

The current slogan reads “City that looks to the future.”

Helmer said his idea for 14-foot-wide signs would cost about $3,000 each. A stone or brick look would increase the cost to more than $5,000. However, some of the signs would be smaller and less expensive because of the amount of land available.