by Bradley Parsons
Staff Writer
Following a trend toward departmental cooperation in City operations, the chief of the Special Events Division wants to coordinate the City’s approach to hanging decorative banners downtown.
Theresa O’Donnell said Tuesday she hopes to bring the Downtown Development Authority, Public Works and the Traffic Division together to form a single strategy on how to best use the banners. She said her division has researched other cities’ methods and said the most effective displays resulted from a distinct vision.
“We looked at banners hanging
in other cities, and we found the
ones that really work had a central
area that they go through; kind of
a banner guru,” said O’Donnell.
With a strategy in place, O’Donnell said the City could use the banners, which hang from downtown’s historic streetlights, to mark different areas. She said she envisions banners as guideposts, helping identify LaVilla, Springfield and the Riverfront parks to downtown visitors and commuters.
Currently, several City departments and divisions have a hand in approving, hanging and funding the banners. O’Donnell said that structure complicates efforts to coordinate the banners and said she would eventually seek Mayor John Peyton’s support to streamline the process. Peyton has heard similar requests to simplify City parking and construction permitting.
Under a coordinated structure, O’Donnell said a single entity would oversee the banners’ maintenance and funding. In the past, the City’s Traffic Division has worked with the DDA and JEA to install the banners. The DDA provided the banners, which would be installed by the JEA or their contractors. The JEA would then add the installation cost to the City’s streetlight bill according to an e-mail from traffic chief Fred Kyle to interim Chief Operating Officer Lynn Westbrook. Kyle said it costs the City about $7,000 to change out all the banners.
If banners are replaced more frequently, Kyle told Westbrook the City may have to find alternate funding. Several changes each year would drain the City’s streetlight account said Kyle.
O’Donnell said the City would soon hang 335 fall-themed cranberry and gold banners on vacant streetlights. Special events has asked for the Traffic Division’s help to hang them.