T-L Photo/GAGE VOTA The Swamberg sign sits blank due to an electronic issue while village officials search for a solution that won’t cost thousands of dollars.

SHADYSIDE — In 2017, Shadyside resident Pauline Swamberg was honored posthumously by having a digital sign in the heart of the village dedicated to her memory.

Eight years later, the sign has created an expensive dilemma for village officials. The sign has stopped working and hasn’t been in operation for close to a year.

Mayor Robert Newhart said the sign was made by an overseas company and, with the time difference, it leaves only a one-hour window for any village employee and a representative from Ice Signs to communicate. This has led to difficulties in making any progress toward a solution.

Recently, council members Melanie Haswell, Lisa Duvall and Sam Carpino created a special committee to fix the sign. Haswell said that committee came to a consensus that the sign will cost thousands of dollars to fix electronically.

She added that since it will be so expensive, the committee members were thinking it may be possible to remove the electronic sign and place an insert in its place.

Haswell said that if the village did decide to go the route of placing an inserted sign instead of a digital sign that the inserted sign would be easy to remove so it can feature multiple messages throughout the year.

She added that the village may host a fundraising event to generate money to fix the sign.

“Maybe we could use the inserted sign until we raise the money to get the sign fixed,” Haswell said.

Resident Jay Johnson said he sees a lot of local churches with electronic signs and thinks that maybe there is a cheaper option. He then asked what exactly is wrong with the sign.

Newhart said that the sign will not communicate with the computer.

“Even if you plug it into an ethernet cord, it will not communicate with the computer,” Newhart said. “We’ve had Erb Electric out here quite a few times. They’ve invested quite a few hours. The sign was bought from Ice Signs and manufactured in China.”

Haswell added that it would cost around $20,000 to fix the sign.

Johnson replied that he just can’t believe that the various churches he sees are able to spend $20,000 to have a sign.

Mayor’s secretary Betty Snyder said she recently spoke with several area churches that have electronic signs, and all have told her their signs cost roughly $20,000.

Newhart said another reason repair or replacement would be so expensive is because the village will technically be purchasing two electronic signs because it’s a double sided sign.

Haswell reiterated her opinion that the village should place an inserted sign in place of the electronic sign until a decision is made.

Carpino then suggested that it may be possible to replace the sign with two T.V. screens and stream whatever the sign says.

He said that he would need to research whether it’s possible but said it may be worth looking into.

Newhart said they would have to be pretty large TVs, but he isn’t against the idea if it makes sense.

Carpino, Haswell, Duvall and Newhart all agreed that something needs to be done but also agreed to continue to search for better options.