Sticking to Antiques Trail [Republican-American]

State backs off plan to reword I-84 signs
BY RICK HARRISON
REPUBLICAN-AMERICAN

WOODBURY — The State Department of Transportation has backed off a plan to reword a pair of signs advertising the Connecticut Antiques Trail near Exit 15 on Interstate 84 as part of a new tourist attraction sign program.

In a letter to Woodbury Antiques Dealers Association President Karen Reddington-Hughes last month, Charles Harlow, manager of traffic engineering for the DOT’s Bureau of Engineering and Construction, announced plans to remove the existing brown signs and replace them with temporary blue signs advertising Kettletown State Park and the “Woodbury Antiques District.”

“It should be noted that signing for ‘Trails’ is no longer allowed on the Expressway system,” Harlow wrote.

The state Department of Transportation erected brown signs on both sides of Interstate 84 about a mile from Exit 15 in Southbury in 2009 touting the Connecticut Antiques Trail. Republican-American archive

But the legislation spearheaded by Sen. Robert J. Kane, R-Watertown, that directed the department to erect the signs in 2009 explicitly called for them to read “Connecticut Antiques Trail.”

“Certainly Woodbury is considered the antiques capital of Connecticut,” Kane said. “But there are many other towns participating.”

Organizers designed the antiques trail to emulate the Connecticut Wine Trail, which connects 25 wineries throughout the state for marketing purposes.

One portion allows visitors to plot a path from shoreline towns like Old Lyme and Stonington, inland to Salem and Lisbon, and to the northeast corner towns including Putnam and Woodstock.

“Since we’ve got this new program, we were trying to be proactive here,” said Kevin Nursick, a DOT spokesman. “And we may have overstepped it a bit. With good intentions. We may have made a faux pas here.”

Nursick said that federal guidelines dictate the types of signs that states can place on interstate highways, seeking to provide a service to drivers so that they are directed only to gas stations that will be open or restaurants that are near the exit and contain enough seats.

“You dump someone off the highway, but where are you sending them?” Nursick said. “Where is the trail? Show me the markings of the trail? We’re not trying to step on any toes here. But that’s part of the concern.”

Harlow said that Woodbury’s organized and concentrated antiques district clearly meets the criteria.

He encouraged other businesses to consult the DOT’s website for the new, more relaxed guidelines.

“We’ve gotten a number of requests from around the state for people putting up signs, and we’ve done it,” Harlow said. “If they can send us an application — certain hours they are open, certain sizing — we’ll put up a sign.”

And while Harlow could not say for sure how the new signs at Exit 15 might read, Reddington-Hughes expressed her satisfaction with almost any solution.

“I’m just happy they’ve established the antiques trail,” Reddington-Hughes said. “In the economic environment we have now, any publicity is good publicity.”