THE NEWS DESK
The News Desk is a collection of news, notes and breaking items affecting the Fredericksburg community.
Culpeper panel backs dual logos
BY DONNIE JOHNSTON
The battle for Culpeper’s town logo may be nearing an end.
The town’s Public Safety, Public Works, Planning and Community Development Committee Tuesday voted to recommend to the full Town Council that the new, more colorful logo be used for marketing purposes, but that the old Revolutionary War logo continue to be placed on all official documents.
The old logo will also be kept on town vehicles, vehicle decals, business cards and email signatures.
The recommendation, however, did not come without a fight. Councilman David Lochridge argued that the new marketing logo would be much easier to read on vehicle decals.
“If you take a look at this [old] logo, the letters are one-eighth of an inch high,” he said. “You need one-inch-high letters to be able to make out words at 10 feet. The new logo would be readable at 21 feet.”
Councilman Ben Phillips, however, said that there is history attached to the old logo and it shouldn’t be discarded, even on vehicle decals.
As a compromise, Councilman Frank Reaves suggested that maybe auto decals could be made larger, but Town Manager Kim Alexander said problems arose when that idea was considered.
“Where’s the logic if you can’t read [the auto decal]?” Lochridge asked committee Chairman Jim Risner.
“I can’t give you an answer that you would accept,” Risner replied, adding only, “You can recognize [the town logo] even if you can’t read it.”
The town tourism department suggested a brighter, more up-to-date marketing logo last summer, and that idea immediately became a subject of controversy.
In other business, Police Chief Chris Jenkins reported that while crime in the town is down by 19 percent this year, larcenies are up 44 percent, due in large part to criminals stealing from vehicles.
His report also stated that traffic tickets are down 32 percent and accidents are down 5 percent.
In other action, the committee voted to recommend that the company renovating the old L.R. Waters building on Waters Place be allowed to place required trees in precast concrete planters rather than in the ground. The latter would require moving underground Verizon cables at an estimated cost of between $40,00 and $55,000.
That recommendation will be brought to the full council Dec. 11.
Donnie Johnston:
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