Main Street business owners have an opportunity to get updated signage to go with the street's updated digs.

The Community and Economic Development Authority (CEDA) has partnered with Upper Cape Cod Regional Technical School, and allocated $2,000 of its funding for business owners who would like to improve the signage of their business as part of the Wareham Village Sign Initiative.

CEDA Director Salvador Pina said he hopes the assistance will ease some of the pain business owners felt — and will soon feel again — during construction of the downtown "Streetscape" beautification project late last year and early this year. The second phase of construction, which will hit Center Street to the Narrows Bridge, is scheduled for this spring.

"We're trying to give back to the employers, show our appreciation," Pina said. "We know that construction caused a disruption."

The signs will be 4 feet by 4 feet, have a hand-carved look, and be made out of "Trex" material, a wood/plastic composite, with paint designed to be durable and long-lasting.

Pina said that such signs can go for $800 in the open market, but because Upper Cape students will be making the signs, the school offered to donate the labor as long as CEDA opted to pay for the material. Each sign will cost CEDA approximately $200. Business owners will only be responsible for the cost of hanging the signs.

A handful of business owners have taken CEDA up on its offer thus far, the idea for which was proposed by Main Street business owner Kristine Hastreiter of bakery Gourmet and Gourmand.

"When Sal [Pina] came on board last summer, that was one of the things that I talked to him about," said Hastreiter, whose business currently doesn't have a traditional sign because she was searching for a particular look that wouldn't break the bank.

She has a small sign on her door, and to compensate for the lack of a larger one, she places a sandwich board outside her shop, and small tables out front.

"It still boggles my mind that people drive by and they don't notice" the bakery, Hastreiter said. "I thought, if this is happening to me, this has got to be happening to everybody else too."

Add that to the challenges the construction presented — the sidewalk in front of the bakery was ripped up, and bump-out curbing was installed, making it difficult for customers to get into the bakery at some times.

"We were impacted quite severely through construction," she said, including during what she calls the "three major banking holidays" — Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter.

The signs from the program will hang perpendicular to the street, so they can be easily spotted by pedestrians and drivers. Pina noted, however, that business owners will be required to appear before the Zoning Board of Appeals in order to get a special permit for the signs if they hang over the public sidewalk.

"The idea is to get those signs out there, get them where people can see them," Pina said. "It's a way to give back and support the downtown."

Pina said he hoped the signs will make the street safer for everybody, as drivers will not have to crane their necks to search for a business.

Hastreiter is hoping to have a gold rolling pin attached to her sign.

"I thought it was a really good program because it would make Main Street look so much better," she said, explaining why she proposed the idea. "Wareham has such potential."

Main Street business owners who would like to participate in the Wareham Village Sign Initiative may contact Salvador Pina at 508-291-3100, ext. 3173 or e-mail a logo to spina@wareham.ma.us.