A new Winthrop-University Hospital “Welcome to Mineola†sign was erected early last Saturday morning in the Mineola Long Island Rail Road plaza, replacing an aging, weathered sign that had sat atop the Station Plaza Coffee Shop since 1940.
Workers from the Going Sign Company, which put up the original welcome sign in 1940, finished the work in four hours with the help of a pneumatic crane that hoisted the largest segment of the sign in place.
The sign is comprised of two banners 36 feet in length. The three-foot high top banner bears the Village of Mineola logo and the words “Welcome to Mineola.â€
A bottom banner eight feet high displays the Winthrop-University Hospital name on it over the words “You Health Means Everything.†An image of the American flag sits between the two banners. A clock rests in the middle of the top banner, replacing a clock that hadn’t worked in years.
Each segment of the sign is blue with white lettering, in contrast with the old sign which was cast in red.
A spokeswoman for Winthrop said the LED lighting that will illuminate the sign at night will be functional by the end of this week. She declined to comment on how much the sign cost.
Going Sign President Jim Going, who oversaw the erection of the new sign on Saturday, said he felt a twinge of nostalgia replacing the sign that his grandfather, John, had originally constructed.
“My family’s been in Mineola 80 years. That’s why I kept the old sign up so long,†Going said.
Reach reporter Richard Tedesco by e-mail at [email protected] or by phone at 516.307.1045 x204. Also follow us on Twitter @theislandnow1 and Facebook atfacebook.com/theislandnow.
