- March 10, 2025
The City Commission is interested in building a welcome sign near Interstate 95, but not for the proposed $250,000 cost.
BY MATT MENCARINI | STAFF WRITER
Ormond Beach may get a new welcome sign, but only if the price is right.
The Ormond Beach City Commission, in a Jan. 15 workshop, expressed desire in building a welcome sign on the corner of Granada and Williamson boulevards, but also said the proposed $248,758 cost was too much.
The proposed welcome sign, which includes two towers designed to look like the old fire station downtown, connected by an eight-foot tall aluminum fence and the words “Welcome to Ormond Beach”, came in above the $185,000 construction budget set by the city.
There was also an additional proposal, for $375,584, that included several aesthetic and logistical improvements, such as installing a retention pond fountain, removing a Florida Power and Light utility pole and upgrading sod.
“In my opinion, we have to try to figure out if we can get them to design a $175,000, or $185,000, project on that corner that will work,” Commissioner Rick Boehm said. “The one we’re looking at won’t.”
The location, to some degree, may be limited to the Granada Boulevard and Williamson Boulevard intersection. The City Commission, in 1999, approved a resolution to execute a lease agreement to build a welcome sign there.
“It’s a terrible site to begin with,” City Manager Joyce Shanahan said. “But it’s the only site that we have. ... And we are complicated by having the shopping center behind (it), because they don’t want us to block their visibility.”
The location presents some logistical issues which increase cost, too, such as having to fill in a ditch, move utility lines and set the sign far off the street.
The possibility of a public-private partnership was also discussed, similar to what was done with the Ormond Beach Sports Complex.
Boehm said he would be comfortable with a budget around $200,000, with $50,000 from an already-committed anonymous donation and about $150,00 from the city, for a smaller-scale project.
But they also wanted to make sure not to scale down too much, so that the sign would be large enough to fill its land.
