Digital sign coming to HSC fairgrounds

The Hot Springs County Fair Board and Recreation Board are moving forward to install a digital sign at the fairgrounds in the same location as their previous sign. Fair Board Chairman Joe Martinez said, “As part of our discussions, we felt it was a positive benefit for both the rec district and the fair board, as well as the community, to have a digital sign up.”

The cost for the five-foot high, 10-foot wide digital sign is $52,844.50. Martinez added, “It was in the previous budget for the fair board and the rec board, it’s fully funded.” 

Wyoming Signs from Casper will install the sign. According to Martinez, the sign will “mostly be utilized for events at the fairgrounds as well as any events and things going on with the rec district. That’s the main purpose of the sign, is for the two entities to utilize it for their purposes. We are planning to have some advertisements available, but it’s going to be on a limited basis because we don’t want the advertisement to take away from the purpose of the sign.”

Previously, the Hot Springs County Travel and Tourism Board was in a discussion about doing a digital sign together, but the entities parted ways. Matrinez said, “There is always difficulty when multiple entities work together on a project. In this instance, we were not able to come to a mutual agreement on a Memorandum of Understanding.”

Hot Springs Recreation Director Brian Parker added, “We were really excited when the opportunity came about to combine with the fair board for this digital sign. It’s not something that we would have done on our own completely. Their partnership did help make it possible for us. We were looking for something in the community a little bit more up-to-date than our current signage.”

Parker continued and said, “It can be tough in small communities to try to get news out about programs and things like that. We think that by having a physical sign in this location, in a very busy spot in town where a lot of people are coming and going, constantly traveling by, it will give our programs in our rec district more visibility.”

Construction for the new digital sign has begun. Completion will be in about eight to ten weeks, pending the shipment of parts.