Monday, September 29, 2014
By ROBERT CONNELLY
AUSTINTOWN
Hotel California plans to have its recently approved sign up in a matter of weeks, shortly before opening its doors for business.
The Austintown Zoning Board of Appeals approved the new LED sign for Hotel California by a 3-1 vote Thursday night. Hotel owner Sebastian Rucci attended and spoke before the board.
He said he fielded questions on “some things that I hadn’t thought about like the timing of letters coming across” the digital sign.
Rucci and the board settled on seven seconds — the same amount of time township trustees recently approved for the four current electronic billboards in the township, including two on state Route 46. Darren Crivelli, township zoning inspector, said the board didn’t want the sign “to have animation or running [objects]. ... When it transitions to the next message, they want it to transition immediately.”
The resolution and Rucci said that is due to regulations by the Ohio Department of Transportation.
The sign is on its way by boat from China and takes four to five weeks to get to here, Rucci explained.
Once the sign is up, township officials will observe the sign to see how intense the lights are, the zoning board’s second main concern, Rucci said. Crivelli explained, “We don’t have any high-rise digital boards [in the township], and the board had a concern of the impact of lighting on other buildings.”
He sees the sign as being “more of like I’m driving by and seeing things and I see a band is going on [the stage] right now.”
Hotel California is eyeing an opening date of Oct. 30 or within four to six weeks. The hotel is having a roast of Mahoning County Democratic Party Chairman David Betras at the Funny Farm within Hotel California, which Rucci said would be a great event with which to open the facility.
The hotel is still awaiting its day before the Ohio Department of Commerce Division of Liquor Control for its hearing on the facility’s liquor license. Both Mahoning County and Austintown Township had filed objections to it, and the hearing is scheduled for early October.
Rucci said the facility will open with or without its liquor license before live horse racing begins at Hollywood Gaming at Mahoning Valley Race Course on Nov. 24.