Beautification panel nets award for Waterford signage

The Waterford Beautification Committee, in conjunction with the Waterford Area Chamber of Commerce and Waterford Township, recently received an award from Keep Michigan Beautiful for the township’s new gateway sign at the intersection of M-59 and Williams Lake Road.

Keep Michigan Beautiful — which is celebrating 50 years of service to Michigan — presented its latest round of Keep Michigan Beautiful Awards to 17 winners on Oct. 19.

The township’s new gateway sign was erected and landscaped as the first of four gateway signs to designate entrance into the community. The Waterford Beautification Committee started the effort to get the signs over nine years ago in order to enhance and enrich the “curb appeal” of Waterford Township.

“It felt wonderful to be recognized because of all the hard work the committee has done over the years,” said township Treasurer Margaret Birch, who is also a member of the Beautification Committee. “It has been done all through private funding to brand (the township) as new.”

Every year the committee holds a fund-raiser on Groundhog Day in February at the Big Boy at M-59 and Airport Road, thanks to owner George Henney, who donates 20 percent of all the day’s proceeds to the cause.

“We also hold a silent auction with items donated and sell Adopt a Planter to various businesses as other ways to raise dollars,” Birch said.

Each sign cost roughly $16,000 due to the requirements set down by the Michigan Department of Transportation. The plan is to purchase a trio of other signs to be erected in the future at Dixie Highway and Telegraph Road, Dixie Highway and Andersonville Road, and M-59 and Telegraph Road.