By Tara Fischer

Staff Writer

The Berlin Town Council unanimously approved purchasing a new variable message sign (VMS), not to exceed $19,000, to act as a board providing event, parking, trash, and law enforcement updates to municipality residents.

The device purchase, passed at the Berlin Mayor and Council’s Monday, Jan. 13 meeting, will be funded through the Capital Outlay Equipment—Street Department budget using savings from under-budgeted projects. Berlin Public Works Director Jimmy Charles said that the sign would be used as a general information board.

“One of the ideas, too, was for trash,” Charles said. “Like around the holidays, I could put it in certain rotations. Like leading into Christmas week, we could have put it over on the western side of the town and said, ‘Tuesday’s route will be picked up on Monday.’ We would be able to use it for water outages or upcoming events. The police could use it for anything that they need to. Emergency, detours, traffic control patterns, and things like that.”

The sign will be purchased from Sunrise Safety Services, INC., a traffic control company based in Glen Burnie. The official title of the purchase is a Wanco Full Size Matric Message Board with a Hydraulic Lift. The public works director added that the board’s capabilities include pictures and scrolling through messages.

Berlin Mayor Zack Tyndall said that the town had rented similar signs in the past and that “from a logistics” standpoint, the purchase makes sense to improve the municipality’s messaging services.