Drivers traveling along Carson Street might be wondering what a work crew is doing near the intersection of Telegraph and Carson streets.
The end result won't be a traffic signal but a new apparatus to hang promotional banners across the city's main thoroughfare.
Cable was strung across Carson Street from hooks attached to buildings. The banners hang across the cable and can be seen from north or south. The old system broke loose last winter during a fierce storm and broke a second-story window in one of the buildings.
Now banners will hang on cable between two poles being cemented in the ground near the same general areas where the hooks used to be attached.
The cable "used to fall down all the time," said Curtis Horton, the city's senior public works operations chief. "This will be a lot safer."
And changing the banner used to require a city crew to block off the street, but it won't any longer. Workers will be able to put up and take down signs from the middle of the street, Horton said.
The new apparatus should be banner-ready within the next couple of weeks. Local organizations have been eager to have a place to hang their event banners once again.
It's considered a highly desirable method to let people know about local events because roughly 40,000 vehicles roll up and down the old town portion of Carson Street daily.
"It's very effective," said Janet Jones, group sales manager for the Carson City Convention and Visitors Bureau. "It's a great way to advertise an event because everyone who drives down the road will see it."
Happenings promoted on Carson Street banners each year include Salsa Y Salsas, Taste of Downtown and special events at Western Nevada Community College and Carson Tahoe Regional Medical Center, she said.
Carson Street is state controlled, and the Nevada Department of Transportation requires a permit for a banner to be displayed there. Then the Carson City Sheriff's Department also has to approve it.
Cost for the project is still being determined, though much of the hardware was already on hand, Horton said.
• Contact reporter Terri Harber at tharber @nevadaappeal.com or 882-2111, ext. 215.
For your
information
For details about obtaining sign permits on state-controlled streets, contact the Nevada Department of Transportation office in Sparks, 834-8330.