By Denise Briggs Potter
By now you’ve likely noticed the quaint multi-directional signs popping up at intersections around Bainbridge, pointing you in the right direction and evoking the charm of an English country road.
They are the handiwork of BHS senior and Eagle Scout Kyle Hammer, along with Troop 1565. Kyle was looking for a community service project, and his dad, Chris Hammer, who is city engineer for Bainbridge Island, knew that the city wanted to improve wayfinding signs on trails and roads.
“I spent several weekends learning new software, trying to find the right colors and make the signs readable,” said Kyle, who designed the signs using the resources at the Bainbridge Artisan Resource Network, aka BARN. “I liked the signs up the street from our house that have family names and say ‘this way’ or ‘that way.’ I also wanted to create signs that could be added on to later.”
Once the designs were approved by the city, the scouts took several months to build the signs out of cedar using a computer-controlled router in the woodshop at Woodward to cut the letters.
“It took a lot of planning, but the first work party really got the ball rolling,” Kyle said. “Once I got the help of the other scouts on the project, it was completed efficiently. It was great to have all the support from the scouts and their parents.”
More signs are planned for Cave Avenue near the Sound to Olympics trail. They will be a service project for another Eagle Scout troop.
