Coronado has a new landmark.
A green "Coronado" sign, painted in the city's signature shade and set in Garamond font, now stands along the Bayshore Bikeway at Tidelands Park with San Diego Bay and the Coronado Bridge as its backdrop. The Rotary Club of Coronado unveiled the $75,000 sign at a ribbon-cutting ceremony Friday, Aug. 21, marking the club's 100th anniversary.
The sign is already drawing crowds of residents and tourists posing for photos. It's the first signature sign of its kind around San Diego Bay, according to Coronado Times reporting.
Bill Sandke, a photographer and Rotarian who championed the project for three years, said the reaction has confirmed the effort was worth it.
"The first day I saw the sign, someone said that it looked like it had been there forever, and I said, I guess we got it right," Sandke said at the ceremony.
Three years of obstacles
The path from concept to concrete was anything but smooth. The original design called for each letter to be painted by a different artist, but the committee scrapped that plan over maintenance concerns and chose a solid-color Garamond font instead.
Then came the location fight. The Port Authority, which oversees Tidelands Park, initially rejected the bayside placement, citing environmental concerns about birds and light pollution. A second proposed spot near the park's playground was shot down by City Council. The Port eventually approved the current bayside location.
Frank Urtasan, who represents Coronado with the Port Authority, acknowledged the difficulty at the ribbon-cutting, telling the crowd that projects like this don't happen overnight.
Funded by 90 donors
About 90 Rotarians and community members each contributed roughly $1,000 to fund the sign. Their names appear on commemorative bricks forming the sign's base.
Mayor John Duncan and Urtasan both spoke at the ceremony, which Sandke said drew Port commission executives, Port commissioners and the mayors of both Coronado and Imperial Beach.
A century of service
The Rotary Club of Coronado received its charter April 19, 1926, at a celebration at the San Diego Yacht Club, then located in Coronado. The club now counts nearly 270 members and manages 62 committees. In its centennial year, the club has also launched the Pour It Forward fundraising campaign supporting Rotary International's global polio eradication efforts and Safe Harbor Coronado, a local mental health nonprofit.
