News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
The official logo and slogan for the city of Sparta will be used for the two gateway monuments coming this fall.
The two welcome signs will be erected on the north and south city limits on Highway 111. Mayor Jeff Young said the sign will be the first of its kind in Tennessee.
“T-DOT safety guidelines basically up to this point have prohibited these type of signs, because of sight lines and distractions and several different things like that, ” Young said. “We had a good case to go down to talk to T-DOT, and they were gracious enough to meet with us.”
Young said the board of alderman had to pass a resolution to use the logo since it is trademarked. T-DOT requires any municipality to approve the use of a copyrighted logo.
“Bluegrass USA and City of Sparta is a copyrighted logo,” Young said. “In order to use a copyrighted logo like this, T-DOT makes sure the owner is okay with the use of it. That is what we did. We approved the use of the logo.”
The board of alderman unanimously passed the resolution. Young said the next step is to open the project for bids. T-DOT first approved the building of two new gateway monuments for the city of Sparta in June. The city Industrial Development fund will pay for the project.
Young said the signs will be about 15 feet high and constructed out of brick and stone with landscaping, laser cut letters and lighting. Senator Paul Bailey and State Representative Paul Sherrell played an instrumental part of getting approval for the project. Both were present for the meeting with TDOT in June.
T-DOT guidelines say a Gateway Monument is defined as any freestanding structure or sign, non-integral or non required highway feature that will communicate the name of a city or county.
