Town Hall’s Movie Marquee Is Back In Business

By Shannon Hicks

The marquee in front of Edmond Town Hall is one of those things that most people are so used to, they don’t even realize they look for it every time they’re on Main Street until it’s gone.

For two weeks earlier last month, the marquee had temporarily disappeared. The post was there, with a pair of chains hanging down where the sign used to be, but residents had to look elsewhere to find out which movie was playing that week in the town hall’s theater.

A fresh coat of paint on the familiar white post with a hanging sign is the most obvious change to the sign in front of 45 Main Street, but closer inspection shows that the entire sign was in fact rebuilt. The new sign, which is still white with black lettering that reads Edmond Town Hall in its upper half and has a lower half with black background and white lettering that changes with each new feature, has been completely redesigned and rebuilt by building superintendent Clark Kathan.

Hinges on the doors that open over the lower half of the sign, where the movie poster hangs, have been not only been replaced, they have been upgraded. The previous brass-coated hardware has been replaced with solid brass hinges, which will prevent rusting, one of the problems that had plagued the sign prior to its recent repairs. Stainless steel screws within the sign will also prevent future rust issues.

“I also designed the new door to open on the side [facing the Main Street flagpole], and now the sign [with each week’s movie information] slides in and out much easier,” Mr Kathan said recently, proudly looking over his handiwork.

The sign itself, previously made of pine, has been redone in oak. Mr Kathan painted each piece of wood as it was cut, and then used exterior house paint to coat them before assembling the pieces.

The Edmond Town Hall Board of Managers paid for the materials, and labor was covered by Mr Kathan’s salary.

Mr Kathan also made allowances for expansion and contraction of the sign over the course of the year.

“I used much less caulking than what had been put on the previous sign,” said Mr Kathan. “The wood needs to breathe, and the sign is exposed to rain, snow, and every other kind of tough New England weather. With too much caulking the water and moisture that gets in can’t get out because the wood can’t breath. The sign hadn’t been able to do that before.

“The sign had been sealed up before, which held moisture from driving rain and snow,” he explained. “Now it’s designed to be hit with water and snow, but water will run out

“A lot of thought went into this,” he added. “This sign should last another 20 years now. We’ll have to touch up the paint annually, and part of the post still needs some work, but I wanted this to look good and last.

“If it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing right. That’s my motto. If you have time to do something again, you can make the time to do it right the first time.”

In all, the sign was down for about two weeks.

“We tried to get it back up as quick as we could,” said Edmond Town Hall Manager Tom Mahoney. “People missed it.”

Main Street resident Brid Craddock was walking by shortly after Mr Kathan finished talking about the new sign. When told that the building superintendent had just been outside talking about his recent project she looked up at the new marquee and said, with a smile, “Yeah, I noticed it. It looks so much better now.”