Signs Matter

Character is in all the little features, those details that form the individual nature of a place. On the Vineyard, it’s in the split rail fences, shingles, dirt roads and old, working barns. And good for Edgartown for saying that it’s in signposts, too.

The state, scraping the echoing bottom of its coffers, busily cutting services, staff and budgets, is nevertheless hard at work right now replacing many of the familiar bunch of grapes signposts on the Island with new ones featuring the same pole design found on major highways. That is, eight-inch galvanized steel poles. These signs and poles, of course, come from the same department that gave us a galvanized steel guardrail on the scenic Tashmoo Overlook, where a split rail fence would do much better.

Edgartown highway superintendent Stuart Fuller protested. He rightly argued that the town had recently rebuilt many of the town signs’ decorative steel brackets at considerable cost. Some are entirely new.

His letter made a difference. Bernard McCourt, district highway director for the state, said the town could paint the new wider poles black or green, it could have a say in the height of the posts and could have the old ones back to garage in case of further developments. He said the new poles were safer, with a series of plates that detach in case of collision, though Island driving is hardly Interstate 95.

Mr. McCourt also said the signs themselves would be unchanged.

Yet Islanders returning from a visit to America now get off the boat to find at Five Corners directional signs of green and white, just like the ones they may have followed all the way from New Jersey. Likewise the grapes are gone from the sign that tells drivers at the end of County Road to turn left for Edgartown and right for Vineyard Haven. Clearly no one in those instances bothered to tell the state no thank you — and that’s a shame and should be righted.

The Vineyard has retained its unique character because people bothered to say, no, we are not like the rest of the state or like anywhere else. We do not want strip malls or McDonald’s or proliferating signs in green and white here, thank you.

Now, will someone please return the grapes?