DURHAM – By the end of this month, the town of Durham will have a new logo.
Jeff Wakeman, the chairman of the Board of Selectmen, said that the board would be make its final decision on the town’s new logo at their next meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 29, after Tri-Town weekly deadline.
Since last month, proposed designs from town residents have hung on the walls of the Durham Town Office, and residents have been able to cast their votes for their favorites. Durham Administrative Assistant Janet Smith said that there has been a bit of interest in the new logo, with “20 or so” votes being cast. Selectmen will take the residents’ votes into account when making their final choice, Smith said, but the board has the final say over which design is chosen.
While most surrounding towns have some sort of official logo or town seal, Durham has never adopted one. In a previous interview, Wakeman said that a search for a previous Durham logo came up mostly empty, with one exception, but that was designed for a very specific event in the town’s history.
“The closest thing we had was a bicentennial seal,” he said. “But that was specifically for (the town’s) bicentennial (in 1989) and nobody knows of any other seal that we have had.”
The impetus for the push for the new town logo came from John Ricker, who was recently hired as the town’s public information technician.
The new logo will be used on the town’s official letterhead, on the public access television channel and other appropriate places
The design parameters were left open, but some rules were set. First, the new logo must be able to be used on small spaces like letterhead, as well as larger spaces, on building signs, for example. The design must incorporate the word “Durham” and the date of the town’s founding, 1789.
Besides having their design incorporated as the town’s official logo, the winner will also receive a $100 U.S. savings bond.
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