Woodlands resident Chris Hodgkins in front of the new sign on Commercial Blvd
By Agrippina Fadel
The damaged sign at the entrance to the Woodlands community at Woodlands Blvd. and Commercial Blvd. has finally been replaced. The sleek new midcentury-modern sign was paid for with $5,000 from the city and the insurance money the community received after a car slammed into the old sign in the early hours of New Year’s Day 2022.
“It feels great to finally have the new sign,” said Chris Hodgkins, president of Section 4 of the Woodlands, who added that the community came together to get it done, with lots of volunteers and support from the residents.
Hodgkins said getting the sign approved and paid for has been a lot of work because they had to go through a maze of city permitting and deal with the “never not enough club” in the Woodlands, where, he said, everybody is a critic.
Original Woodlands Country Club sign when it was damaged {Courtesy Chris Hodgkins}
“But overall, we are very happy with it,” he said.
The old sign was “big, clunky, and outdated” to begin with, but after being hit by a car in January of last year and again three months later, it was decimated.
“We involved all the stakeholders from the get-go. The design was voted on at the city hall, with over 80% of the residents supporting it,” he said.
He added that the community would plant native plants around the sign to beautify the entrance. He has already asked the city for cement bollards to protect the area from another accident.
Hodgkins said the community looked at different designs, with several companies estimating a new sign would cost around $40K.
The homeowner’s association only had $15,000 from the insurance company.
At the July 13 meeting, the city commission agreed to add $5,000 from the city funds to help pay for the sign, and the local company Southeast Sign Co. offered to get the job done for $20,000.
A day before the first anniversary of the Woodlands sign being hit, the volunteers cleaned the area, added topsoil, and the sign — a sleek metal construction with internal lighting, was finally installed.
“We didn’t have the wherewithal to put in a massive sign, but we got the largest sign allowed by the city code. It’s clean and crisp, and it does the job,” Hodgkins said.
New sign in front of the Woodlands Country Club in Tamarac. {Courtesy Chris Hodgkins}
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