She got her sign.

Earlier this month, Sissy Ferrell, owner of Mill Street Station Cafe, formerly Kerri's Corner Cafe in Coraopolis, took down Kerri's sign and changed the design to include the new name.

Coraopolis

But after speaking with borough officials, she feared she might have to get a new sign to comply with the borough sign ordinance.

Tom Cellante, borough manager, said there usually is no problem when a new business just changes the name on the existing sign as long as that sign remains hanging. If the sign was put up before the borough's sign ordinance was passed, it is "grandfathered in" and can remain as is.

However, if that sign is taken down, then it falls under the ordinance and must be changed to comply with regulations.

Last week, Ferrell received a letter stating that the borough solicitor had recommended that she be permitted to rehang the sign with the new name.

Ferrell told borough council board members she sent a representative to the borough office to make sure it was okay to take down Kerri's sign and then rehang the same sign with the new name.

He came back and told Ferrell that as long as they were using the existing sign, there wouldn't be a problem.

After the sign was taken down and some rusty parts removed, Ferrell then was told at a borough workshop meeting earlier this month that the sign would have to comply to the borough sign ordinance before she could put it back up.

Either that, or the borough would need to amend the 1985 ordinance, which Cellante said takes 30 days.

It also would have to be advertised and a public hearing may have been required before the amendment could be passed.

The ordinance requires signs to project only 3 feet from the building. Kerri's sign projected 6 feet but had been put up before that ordinance was passed.

Cellante said at the workshop meeting that if the borough allows Ferrell to put up her sign, it would not be fair to other businessmen who had to go before the zoning hearing board to get a variance for their signs.

Anthony Celeste, councilman, said he believes the ordinance should be amended to allow all existing signs to be taken down to be changed when there is a new owner or if the sign needs repaired.

Cellante said if council chooses to amend the ordinance, board members may want to take a look at the rest of the ordinance to see if anything else needs to be changed so that requirements don't conflict with one another.

Celeste said Coraopolis doesn't have people standing in line to locate businesses in the borough, so the town should help when it can.