Motorists entering Pennsylvania and McKean County along U.S. Route 219 from New York state will now be greeted by a new large, green and gold welcome sign that was installed Monday.

Linda Devlin, executive director of the Allegheny National Forest Visitors Bureau, said the sign was designed, made and installed by Keith Cousins of Cousins Designs of Eldred.

“This has been a long time coming,” Devlin said while looking at the new weather-resistant sign made of aluminum composite material with raised acrylic letters. “It’s a new design and it has our signature colors that we’ve been doing with our greens and golds, which is our branding” for the bureau.

“The letters are reflective so at nighttime they will show up,” she continued. “That’s what we thought was part of the problem” for visibility.

The problem Devlin referred to was the previous welcome sign’s ill-fated, short-lived existence on the interstate. The three-year-old sign, constructed of wood with painted lettering, was smashed and splintered by a vehicle several months ago.

As the accident went unreported, Devlin didn’t learn of the issue until someone told her that the former rustic sign had been, for all intents and purposes, demolished. She said the accident had to be reported to the insurance company for an investigation, which dragged out the time the broken sign stood by the roadside.

The creation of the new sign was further delayed when another sign-maker approved for the project several months ago backed out of the project.

In addition, the old sign couldn’t be completely removed because the visitors bureau would have had to start all over again with the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation and the right of way process for its installation.

Cousins said because of this, an existing post in the ground from the old sign remained and he installed another post opposite of it at a deeper depth. Vinyl sleeves cover the two posts to give the entire sign a clean, sharp look.  

“I do everything, the design, the build and the manufacturing,” Cousins said, noting he has been in the business 22 years.

Devlin said the bureau has been busy working on other sign projects around the county including new welcome signs in Port Allegany as well as several kiosk projects. The kiosks, which contain detailed brochures and maps of a community, can be found in Smethport, Mount Jewett and Kane. Two more will be installed in downtown Bradford in the near future.

Devlin said the county also has used grant funding to purchase another McKean County welcome sign that will be placed on the Elk/McKean county border on Route 219 near Wilcox.