Shakopee City Council approved a contract with Indigo Signs for $ 31,033.15 plus $ 5,000 for contingencies at its November 16 meeting.

According to the mayor and councilors, the city has received numerous complaints about the lack of legibility of the current downtown sign. This sign was installed about four years ago.

Michael Kerski, the city’s planning and development director, said new technology created in recent years would solve the readability problem and make the replacement sign easier to read.

Daktronics’ new downtown panel will have 8mm pixels, more than twice the amount of the current panel. Smaller pixels on the new panel make the content easier to read and allow for better graphics overall.

Councilor Angelica Contreras told the meeting that this upgrade should be done to improve outdated technology.

“It’s a big project. It’s something we need… if something is out of date you always upgrade it, ”Contreras said.

With the current bulletin board, staff should visit the panel when it is scheduled to see what the message looks like in person and ensure it looks right. The new Daktronics card can be programmed from a cell phone in real time and in real appearance so that messages can be updated efficiently without going to the panel every time.

Another panel upgrade is the addition of a built-in emergency messaging feature. This feature allows local emergency alerts to automatically run on the bulletin board.

Thanks to this alert system, the city can choose the times, frequency and level of intervention to display these emergency messages.

Emergency alerts range from Amber and Silver alerts to weather alerts from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the National Weather Service, and the Emergency Alert System.

Mayor Bill Mars said the replacement sign can provide important information to residents of Shakopee.

“People are taking notice of this sign, and the amount of information we can put into it is great,” Mars said.

Councilor Matt Lehman added that posting this information on Highway 101 benefits the entire community.

“I think the information that this panel may be able to broadcast on 101 is a community wide benefit,” Lehman said.

The Downtown Sign is the only city-owned digital sign in addition to a smaller sign displayed at the Shakopee Community Center. The city hopes to move the current sign from downtown to the community center, as less traffic and slower driving speeds would make the sign easier to read there rather than along the highway.

City council has decided that the project will be funded by the Federal Coronavirus Fiscal Stimulus Fund.

Mars said coronavirus recovery funds would make sense to go towards the bulletin board project.

“As far as funding goes, I think it’s a perfect place for COVID funding,” Mars said. “It’s a one-off thing that contributes to the viability of our community and downtown.

According to Kerski, the city is still awaiting a schedule from the contractor regarding the removal of the current sign and the installation of the replacement one.