In a quiet corner of a State Highway Administration shop in Anne Arundel County, Theodric Clark painstakingly applies black paint to the raised metal letters of the historical sign identifying Deep Falls, the ancestral St. Mary's County estate of Gov. James Thomas (1833-1836).
The cast-iron sign bears dents from bullets that scarred this memorial to the state's first Whig chief executive, but sandblasting has restored the decades-old marker to its original luster and the newly repainted letters pop out from the silvery surface. Soon the sign will return to the tiny town of Chaptico, where it will inform passers-by with a clarity it hasn't exhibited in decades.
Restoring historic signs is just one of the tasks undertaken at the highway administration shop off Dorsey Road in Hanover. Housed in a low-slung, nondescript brown brick building near BWI Marshall Airport, the 11-worker operation turned out 22,707 highway signs totaling 170,000 square feet last year - ranging from standard-issue stop signs to one-of-a-kind interstate exit markers.
When a tractor-trailer leaves the highway and plows through a sign, it is the sign shop that gets the call. And when a new governor is elected, as happened with Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. in 2002 and Martin O'Malley in 2006, this is where about 20 new signs are fabricated that make sure that the current chief executive welcomes those who cross into Maryland.
"We had to scramble [with] this last one for O'Malley," said Eugene "Sonny" Bailey, the sign operations manager, because the agency had to pull together an inventory of the signs that needed to be changed. Now, inventory accomplished, he feels better prepared in the event of another change. "It'll be an easier transition for the next governor who comes in," he said.
Bailey said he's seen a lot of changes in the world of road signs since he came to the office 26 years ago as an entry-level sign fabricator. Back then, the state was still making some wooden road signs.
During a tour of the sign fabrication area, Bailey pointed out noticeable differences between the reflectivity of new signs and older models that have been sent back to the shop.
In an outside storage area lays a retired sign that once directed motorists onto Route 65 to reach Sharpsburg. Like many older signs, it had metal letters riveted to the sign's surface. No more. Bailey pointed out newer signs in which the lettering is applied directly to the sign using an adhesive material made by 3M. According to Bailey, the new lettering is more reflective and will last far longer.
