JOHN COFFELTEditor

Coffee County installed a new LED backlit sign at the Coffee County Administrative Plaza that will update the aging look of the longstanding marquee located near the roadway on McArthur Street.

“I’m happy to commission it,” County Mayor Judd Matheny said. “We needed a modern sign.”

“This is a very prosperous county. People are moving here from all over the country. We want to look like a modern, forward-looking government, and have a sign that matches that rather than have a sign with a bunch of runs on it,” he said.

“We want the citizens to be proud of it and the people who work here to be proud of it,” he said. We want it to look like a modern, high-growth area like it is.”

“It’s something I saw early on and it’s taken a while to get it going. It definitely needed a facelift. Definitely needs an electronic sign in the future.”

Cook Signs’ Zach Seibers said that the sign was made in-house by the company’s craftsmen.

“Every bit of it is aluminum,” he said. “It’s all handmade — custom-made, everything but the screws.”

Siebers has no doubts in the solid construction of his sign, joking that a tornado could destroy the marquee, but the sign would likely still be intact.

The sign bears an updated county logo featuring the courthouse’s one-of-a-kind copula and the date of the county’s founding, set into the face with panes seamlessly pieced together in day/night plastic.

“It took a lot of time,” Siebers said, “a lot of good hands. Everybody in the whole shop had a hand in it.”

When old sign was recently pressure washed, chunks of corroded parts were flaking off. Siebers said that the old sign looked to be repurposed with an old vinyl face.

Matheny hopes to next add a digital sign on the marquee that can announce meeting times and upcoming events.

“We’re just going to take it slow,” Matheny said. “And make sure we have monies in place to do that.”

John has been with the Manchester Times since May 2011. John has won Tennessee Press Association awards for Best News Photo and placed in numerous other categories. John is a 1994 graduate of Tullahoma High School, a graduate of Motlow State Community College and earned a Bachelor of Arts in English from Middle Tennessee State University. He lives in Tullahoma, enjoys painting, dancing and exploring the outdoors.