Hoffman residents turned off by new LED signs

Some Hoffman Estates residents have started an Internet petition opposing three electronic signs set to go up in the village by the end of the year.

The message-board signs would feature event listings and other village bulletins, said Mayor William McLeod. The village board voted Sept. 15 to install the signs.

But some residents of the Charlemagne subdivision at Algonquin and Versailles roads, near one of the proposed sign locations, worry it will hurt the neighborhood aesthetic, particularly the surrounding wetland area.

The village pledged to do proper landscaping around the signs, since some trees will have to be removed to install them, but that has failed to satisfy some residents.

"The trees do block sound off Algonquin Road," said Donna Stone, a 14-year resident of Charlemagne.

The two other signs would be west of Beverly Road just north of Shoe Factory Road, and near the new police station at 411 W. Higgins Road. All three LED signs would be 14 feet 4 inches tall and 14 feet wide with a 60-square-feet electronic display areas. The signs would emit a monochrome amber color and be on 24 hours a day.

McLeod said officials would first install temporary signs near Shoe Factory and the police station, as their placement could change depending on the site plans for the police station and possible road construction on Shoe Factory. Police station construction should be finished in 2010.

The final cost for the signs has yet to be determined, though McLeod say they'd be $60,000 to $100,000 each. Objectors like Stone also question spending that amount after recent budget cuts that will leave police and firefighter jobs vacant. Police reduced the number of positions by three patrol officers to 102, cutting $179,000 this fiscal year.

McLeod said it's been his goal to put up these signs since he became mayor in 2000.

One potential way to help pay for them is to allow advertising, but McLeod said he'd prefer to limit the signs to village purposes and for the use by other groups like the park district to list community events.

The park district also wants eventually to upgrade its signs to digital displays, park board President Craig Bernacki said. That would also mean replacing the analog sign near Willow Recreational Center, about a half-mile from the sign at Charlemagne. Stone said there's no need to have two digital signs so close together.

Bernacki said the park district wants to work with the village in using the signs together, but the park district is more interested than the village in looking to advertisers for revenues. Bernacki said sponsors like PepsiCo. could save the park district $20,000.

"We're going to look to save the taxpayers' money," he said.

So far, the residents' petition only has 14 signatures. The residents have also appealed directly to the board to rethink the signs.