Wooden signs raise funds for Ansonia’s 125th celebration

Alderman Patrick Henri works Monday on Ansonia signs.

By Patricia Villers, New Haven Register

Posted: 04/28/14, 8:29 PM EDT

Signs for Ansonia's 125th.

ANSONIA >> For more than a month, Sixth Ward Alderman Patrick Henri has been busy creating a centerpiece for commemorations of Ansonia’s 125th anniversary.

The city was founded in 1889. It is named after industrialist Anson G. Phelps, who lived from 1781-1853 when Ansonia was a borough of Derby.
Henri has been putting together 10, two-sided wooden signs featuring white letters painted on blue and blue letters on white to spell out ANSONIA 125.

He said he was grateful to the students in the carpentry and manufacturing technology departments at Emmett O’Brien Technical High School who worked on the project.
“The carpentry shop made the frames of the backdrops and the bases on wheels and manufacturing technology (students) made the letters,” Henri said Monday evening as he rolled blue paint onto the cut-out letters.

Mayor David S. Cassetti stopped by Henri’s home to check the progress of the project and commended Henri’s hard work. “It’s good we can celebrate the city’s 125th in style, with all the festivities this year,” Cassetti said. “I’m looking forward to it.”
So far there are 10 sponsors for the letters and numbers, Henri said, and there are 10 spaces left.
Each of the wooden structures will have two sponsors, and each sponsor will get an ad placed under a character on a 1-foot-by-2-foot placard, he said.
Sponsorships are $250 each, which helps pay for the signs as well as give Ansonia 125 organizers “some seed money for events,” Henri said.

“This will be a centerpiece at events throughout the year commemorating Ansonia’s 125th anniversary, including the Memorial Day Parade and Harvest Fest (in October),” Henri said.
He will take the centerpiece to its first event Wednesday when the U.S. Navy Band and the Navy Submarine School Silver Dolphins Drill Team perform at 12:30 p.m. at Emmett O’Brien Technical High School, 141 Prindle Ave.

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