Cochrane now has their own illuminated welcome sign

A new addition to the Town of Cochrane could spell new opportunities locally, as well as in Toronto.

Cochrane has an illuminated sign standing at the intersection of Highway 11—right at the Board of Trade office—that is similar to the popular sign erected in Toronto for the 2015 Pan-American Games.

Cochrane Mayor Peter Politis says it’s been a long time coming for a larger regional community that has long been without a sign.

“When people come in our community, we want their first impression to be ‘Wow,'” he says, noting Cochrane’s moniker of “Wonderfully Unexpected.”

“We want their first impression to be ‘Wow, that was unexpected, I’d like to see a bit more of this place, I’d like to get to know this place a little more.”

He says they’ve been planning a sign for the last four to five years, but this concept came up more recently.

The concept, as mentioned, is similar to Toronto’s sign. Politis says it’s opened up opportunities for cross-promotion, as the two municipalities house the two ends of the longest street in the world: Yonge Street.

The Cochrane Mayor adds they’re already in the infancy stages of talks with Toronto Mayor John Tory to do just that.

“I’m looking forward to carrying that a little farther,” Politis said, “We haven’t got much to talk about at this point other than it’s a neat idea and we want to get our people together and we want to talk about what we could do with it.”

And much like the Toronto sign, Politis says they plan to use the sign to signify things like awareness months or even sporting events.

This new sign isn’t as costly as the one at Nathan Phillips Square.  The GTA version holds a price tag of around $100,000, while the Cochrane sign was built and installed for around $55,000.

Politis says whether it was a standalone granite sign or a wood sign, the price would’ve been around the same so the investment was a good one.

“From a residents standpoint, a business standpoint, we think this sign provides that type of uniqueness, that type of wow-factor and we’re pretty excited about it.”