New Signs Offer Mediterranean Welcome to City

Visitors won’t see cold metal plaques greeting them as they enter Camarillo.

Instead, they will now be given a warm welcome with a new Mediterranean-style sign.

The city designed the nearly 8-foot sign to reflect the flavor of Camarillo and to impart a sense of civic pride.

“We want to give people that are entering the city a real impression,” said Steve Mitchell, assistant planner. “We are concerned about the appearance of our city.”

The bougainvillea blooms that adorn the new sign are the city’s official flower. Mitchell drew the flowers in full scale and created a stencil so they could be transferred onto city monuments.

The spray of flowers can be seen on all of the street signs found on the median strip of most major streets.

The painters hired for the job took six months to finish their work. Each of the more than 40 signs took three hours, said Alicia Handwerker, who is working to finish the last leg of the project.

“I lost count, there were so many,” Handwerker said.