This vote is banner news in Port

Do you prefer boats, birds or butterflies? Perhaps the lighthouse, Light Station or Rotary Park gazebo? 

Those are the questions Port Main Street Inc. is placing before residents and visitors.

Port Main Street is preparing to replace the drab brown banners hanging over the city’s main streets with colorful new ones, and it is asking for input on which designs to use for the flags.

Port artist Nicole Shaver created 10 potential banner designs, of which five will be selected to hang over the city’s streets.

Each one has its own merits, Main Street Executive Director Melissa Alexander said.

“The lighthouse and St. Mary’s are Port Washington icons,” she said. “A lot of people don’t know we’re a Monarch City or a Bird City. The boats are a mainstay of Port Washington, and a lot of people like our slogan, Your Home Port.”

Alexander said Main Street decided to have new banners created after the city street department notified the group that the old ones are “falling apart.”

“They need to be replaced,” she said.

Instead of reordering the old banners, the group decided to look for colorful new ones that reflect the city and its landmarks.

“We’re excited to bring more color to downtown, even in the winter,” Alexander said. “The one thing I said was we need something that’s vibrant and doesn’t just blend into the background.”

The banners will be paid for by businesses that sponsor them — not just downtown businesses but businesses throughout the community — and Alexander said tentative plans are for the businesses to select where their banners hang.

The 10 designs Shaver created are now being whittled to five that will be printed on the new banners. People can vote for their favorite designs on the Port Main Street Facebook page.

“If you have to drive past them everyday, I think you should have a say in what they look like,” Alexander said. “The more people vote, the better. We want everyone to be included.”

Voting will be open through Wednesday, Sept. 16, she said.

So far, Alexander said, “the lighthouse is in the lead ... by a lot.”

Other top contenders with a week to go in the voting are the banners featuring a sailboat and bird, a charter boat and fish, St. Mary’s Church and the Port Light Station emblazed with the note “Established in 1835.”

The new banners should be hanging over the main streets of the city by spring, Alexander added.