UPDATE!: First, apologies as we did not expect the outpouring of well-thought-out responses and suggestions, and should have provided more information in the original post. We blame the lazy mayor for that. Background: Originally, 4 sign designs were looked at. One from Steph Spina (Who designed our awesome Village of Homer Seal), one from Trustee Ed Finkbeiner, one from the Village of Homer Beautification Committee, and one was to simply replace the signs with the same thing. The board and the beautification committee weighed in, and the decision was made to go with a clean, simple, elegant sign in the style of the Village of Sleepy Hollow. Additional details important to the discussion: 1. Proposed colors: This is the hottest of the debates, blue vs green! The original design we have does indicate 4 possible sign color choices: Sherwin Williams Behr Colors:MQ6-02 "Walk Me Home", MQ6-05 "Verdant Forest", MQ6-01 "Ocean Abyss" and SW 2910 "Rookwood Sash Green. We will discuss possible blue colors at the board meeting tomorrow night. 2. The Lettering is gold leaf, like many of the signs throughout the village now. Part of what we were looking for was consistency. 3. We will address the noted font issues, those were a limitation of the mock-up software. 4. The current idea is to have the back have the horse and buggy on it, and to use the quote "Won't You Tarry With Us A While?". This pays homage to the original signs, the original Brockway factory and is a fun and unusual thing that might stick in people's heads. 5. Part of the RFP is for us to receive a full-size mock-up with possible paint choices shown, etc. This is where we can make final changes and will actually give the final approval of the sign. Ideally, this will take place at the August board meeting, so that we can work toward getting some or all of the signs replaced before winter. Thank you all for your feedback!

I think the beauty of Homer is its abundance of eclectic historic architecture, and that it is one of the largest intact national and state historic districts in NYS. I don’t believe Homer (or its history) is tied to one story, one character, or one house. It is a collection of many stories, and its history belongs to all of us. I like the new proposal. Weighing in with my opinion as the owner of David Harum house. (ps - but please keep it to two typefaces, not three, on a simple sign, to avoid typography overload!)

I grew up here in Homer, so I know who David Harum was, but I don't think there's value in mentioning him on our welcome sign. I much prefer the new sign, but I would note; however, that Sleepy Hollow's placement and sizing of the word "Historic," works better than ours. I think I would move the words "Welcome to" down further and make the font size of the word "Historic," smaller. Just my two cents 😊

I’m not a resident so my comments are pretty irrelevant (and that’s ok) I like the blue or black background idea over the green. Green signs tend to blend in with trees/shrubs. Going with school colors is never a bad idea Also would stay away from mentioning “home of” people unless truly historic like Abe Lincoln or similar Good luck

Your post addresses 'Village of Homer' residents and everyone has always referred to my beautiful home town as the 'Village of Homer'. But, the new design proposal welcomes folks to 'Homer Village'. 🤔

All I remember is the David Harum restaurant. They served the best breakfast in town! I personally love the horse and carriage on the sign because of how much history each house in the village holds. I would be fine with the sign stating welcome to historic homer with the horse and carriage design. A fresher, easy to read sign would be wonderful.

No idea who David Harum is and I didn’t move to Homer because of him so quite honestly I don’t know why we have signs with his name on it. I realize we want to keep our history in mind and in our heritage but the world has also changed and we need to be able to embrace it while understanding our history and heritage. We have museums, libraries etc. that can be used to learn about our history. Having historical figures on our signs that nobody knows who they are doesn’t seem to add much value in my opinion. I’m glad you are updating the signs though, but to be honest I didn’t even see the signs for the first couple years I lived in the village, perhaps they didn’t stand out enough?

The new design is wonderful!what an improvement for our community . love the shape of the sleepy hollow sign.

I would prefer blue over green, too. Also, the font used for “historic” on the new design is difficult to read in my opinion. Thank you for opening this discussion to the community.

Love the new design! Simple and classy!

Like the new sign and blue for color. Also where I now live we have historic facts on small signs around the village, instead of on the welcome sign.

Just a "pat on the back": A friend of mine was here to visit and toured around the town before showing up to the house. She loved our "quaint" little village! She said it was so inviting and "warm!" Sooo thank you to all for keeping that imagine still alive! We are fortunate to live in such a beautiful area.

We recently moved away, but as a longtime resident, I thought I’d add my two cents. I like the new proposed sign. As much as the history of David Harum is cool, as has already been said, it’s not vital to our town’s sign. I think summing up our history in the word “Historic” lets people know there’s more to discover. As someone who is navigating my new surroundings, I personally go check out a town’s website when I see the word “historic”. So maybe include a brief overview and links to the history on the front page of the Village Website so it is easily accessible to those interested in researching it. One thing that I’ve always liked was the quote from David Harum on the backside of the sign as you leave, “Won’t you tarry with us a while?” It might be a nice touch to keep on the new sign.

I like the sleepy hollow colors and our style example. I know of David harum and maybe put the historic sign out in front of the house as a tribute like the others around town and leave it off the village sign to keep our sign simple. Is the sign going to be made of wood again?

I agree Homer has more history. Everything is marked dated. Everything needs a change. Something new to add to the history of Homer.

Love the new design!! Go for it!!

Maybe have an actual artist design the sign. The sample I see completely lacks contrast, repetition, alignment and proximity; key components in a proper graphic design. Why is Historic indented? 🤔

I can’t believe any sign, with or without reference to David Harum/Hannum, would have any impact on someone moving to Homer or not. That said, I firmly believe that’s important Homer history & folklore & if residents don’t know about him, shame on them! It’s very unfortunate that local history is no longer taught in the lower grades, about the Amos Todd Beebe connection, the reason Homer IS ... kids (& adults) can spend enormous amounts of time glued to their I-pads, too bad a little of that time can’t be spent researching local history. Who’s Jedediah Barber? Franklyn Carpenter? William O. Stoddard? The significance of the Homer Academy? So much more ... so perhaps David Harum isn’t considered relevant today, but are we to disregard interesting local history and folklore? Maybe getting on line and doing a little research about our local history isn’t such a bad idea. Just saying ...

"Historic" is over-used and trite, most of the time - just my opinion. Lexington, Mass = Historic; Gettysburg, Pa = Historic. Important historical events happened in those places.

We moved to Homer in 1964 and those white and blue signs were there at that time or soon after. It's about time for a change. On the other hand, people like me who grew up in Friendly Homer were taught to appreciate the history of the Village, both the fictional history and the actual history. Packing all of what we know about Homer in a Welcome sign is impossible, so just make the new signs as perfect as possible. No asking too much, eh? 😉 Please center the word "Historic," and possibly consider a stylized design at the top that references the historic lenticular bridges.

Why don’t you have a local contest for the sign design and just say all entries should contain these elements? Make a thing out of it.

I prefer the new style.

I also vote for dark blue and gold. I would think that if mentioning a historical figure is necessary, perhaps others -such as Amelia Jenks Bloomer -should be considered. I personally don’t feel it’s necessary.

That was one of our field trips back in school, we visited his home and the grave site. However people who don't live here... any some that do don't even know who he is. Why not boast about the community? That's one thing that made me move back and buy my house here...this town is community based and has that "small town" feel. However the new design looks nice, Could you use a blue for Blue pride? or would that be too dark?

I think they r great...!! the signs like our town are clean and classy...