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1 The sign company representative indicated he thought his October 30th 2 letter to Mr. Hamer accurately described the specific items he was 3 looking for in this particular business. He added that the size of 4 the letters was determined from a chart designating what size 5 characters would be required to attract business from the local 6 traffic which was the real reason these variances were so important to 7 the owner. 8 When Commissioner Hansen asked whether Mr. Gow hadn't thought it might 9 be unusual to compute signage surface by lettering, including the 10 apostrophes, Mr. Gow indicated it was typical for other cities to use 11 channel letters, especially for malls in the Twin Cities where signage 12 is a continuous band and signage is calculated by words identifying 13 individual tenants. 14 Commissioner Werenicz told him he failed to see the connection between 15 mall signs and signage for an isolated building. 16 Mr. Gow said he would check his files for the names of other cities 17 whose ordinances calculated signage in this manner but when pressed by 18 Commissioner Hansen, gave the names of Blaine and Moundsview. The 19 sign company representative also conceded that "individual words were 20 usually measured and it might be unusual to measure the "D" and " ' s" 21 separately as was done in this case. Mr. Farrell reiterated his 22 experience in the restaurant business and said he had "actually 23 turned around one million dollar business" , so certainly knew how •24 important signage was. 25 When Commissioner Hansen questioned why if signage was so important, 26 they had waited until the last thing to bring the sign package to the 27 City, Mr. Farrell indicated he had checked with Mr. Hamer the first 28 day he walked into the building to take it over, either October 1 or 29 2, " having already gone to 7 other sign companies for estimates before 30 that time. Mr. Gow said they already had the sign package decided on 31 when they first saw Mr. Hamer and had ordered the signs, which took 8 32 weeks to make, right after the interview, sometime around the first or 33 second of October. 34 Applicant to Drop Reader Board but Perceives Roof Sign Important 35 Mr. Farrell indicated the "vibrations" about the sign being "tacky" , 36 etc. he had gotten at the hearing had convinced him that he would 37 probably have to "eat" the $1,200 he had spent on the reader board for 38 the east side. He said he was therefore only looking for a variance 39 that evening for a sign which would "replace the 'Mr. Hobo' atmosphere 40 from that area. " 41 He indicated the sign surface had been cleaned up and painted over to 42 look much better and was now requesting to put up the "Mickey D' s" 43 sign to face away from the neighborhood. He reiterated that the sign 44 "would be much less signage" and would give off less light for the 45 closest home in which the previous Mr. Hobo owner lives. • 4