Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, April 28, 1995 TAG: 9504280054
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: RICK LINDQUIST STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RADFORD LENGTH: Medium
It turns out that Radford's West End welcome sign on First Street was not stolen after all, as city officials - and the news media - reported this week.
It's just in for routine maintenance at a local sign shop.
"We were rather shocked when we saw the [newspaper] article," said Lynn Seltz, office manager at Sign Systems, which removed the sign earlier this month for refurbishing.
"We thought we were doing a good deed."
City Engineer Jim Hurt - the person who reported the sign missing - insisted Thursday he was not embarrassed about the mistake. He said Sign Systems' owner Jon Wyatt had told him "weeks and weeks and weeks ago" that his crews planned to take the large, wooden sign into the shop for repair and repainting, but didn't follow up with a timely reminder.
Seltz said Sign Systems had told the city it planned to work on the sign. She chalked up the misunderstanding to human frailty.
"Apparently the person we talked to had forgotten," she said, apologizing for any inconvenience.
City Manager Robert Asbury Jr., who announced the sign's apparent theft Monday during a City Council meeting, said Thursday he was pleased to know the sign was in safe hands instead, but he wasn't completely happy with the explanations he'd heard so far, either.
Officials and police may have been overreacting because of earlier, genuine sign thefts. In the past, thieves have nabbed both big wooden signs that greet visitors entering the city's West End from Interstate 81 or the East End on Tyler Avenue.
One of the signs, taken from its Tyler Avenue location and missing for about a year, was quietly returned unharmed earlier this month through local lawyer Jimmy Turk Jr. He said it had been in the home of a Radford University student who knew it was stolen, got nervous about having it around and contacted Turk about returning it.
However, Sign Systems recently installed a new sign - at a cost of around $1,500 - to replace it, and Seltz said the company thought that was a good time to spruce up the First Street sign, which had weathered.
The company hopes to have the refurbished sign back in place by May 6, just in time for Radford University's graduation exercises.
by CNB