Cloverdale's new billboard is designed to divert motorists off Highway 101 and into the sleepy downtown where they might grab a bite to eat, spend a few dollars, maybe even stay the night.
But under the large letters that spell out Cloverdale, is the identifier, "Gateway to the Mendocino Coast."
That's provoking some angst among the townfolk, who say it makes it look like Cloverdale has nothing to offer.
"What happened to having a clear, focused message actually about Cloverdale?" said Stephanie Domenichelli, who owns a bed-and-breakfast in town. "Last time I checked, Cloverdale was still in Sonoma County," which she described as "one of the most marketable brands in the world."
The billboard message has touched on a sore spot for the town of 8,500 residents, which is just 15 minutes up the road from chic, touristy Healdsburg and aspires to be more than a freeway exit for those heading toward the seaside village of Mendocino.
In the old days, Highway 101 ran right through Cloverdale, guaranteeing the stream of travelers wouldn't miss the downtown and providing an opportunity to fill up at a service station and pull over for a burger or a cup of coffee.
But once the freeway was built to the east in the early 1990s, drivers could avoid the downtown completely as they whizzed by north and south, or turned toward the coast on Highway 128.
Cloverdale Chamber of Commerce officials, who lease the freeway billboard, defended the tie-in to Mendocino.
"Just saying &‘Cloverdale' isn't going to hook them. By saying &‘Come to Cloverdale,' that's not enough," said Carla Howell, chief executive officer of the Chamber of Commerce.
She said the town is simply "riding on the coat tails of all the promotion Mendocino County is doing."
"We can't get away from our geography. We are the last town in Sonoma County on the way to Mendocino," said Howell. She noted the billboard provides "an opportunity to try and get these people going by us at 90 miles an hour on (Highway) 101 to stop in Cloverdale."
Chamber officials sub-lease space on the billboard to businesses that include a couple of motels, a restaurant, campground and an industrial park.
"It's not how I would have worded the billboard, but I understand the Chamber decision," said City Councilman Gus Wolter, who owns a bed-and-breakfast inn. "It wasn't put there by the Chamber to necessarily demean Cloverdale in any way, or make it less significant than any other tourist town in Sonoma County," he said.
However, he expressed reservations with linking Cloverdale and Mendocino.
"We have enough problem in Cloverdale with image, from the standpoint with people to the south who think we are part of Mendocino County," he said, noting that many overnight visitors want to be in "Sonoma" wine country and not too far north.
A picture of the new billboard on the Cloverdale news section of The Press Democrat website elicited more than two dozen comments, most of them negative.
"It should read, &‘The Best Part of Sonoma County' not &‘the place you might as well pass by on your way to Mendocino,' wrote Cloverdale resident Dave Laurice.
Some residents said they would have preferred the town's old slogan, "Where the vineyards meet the redwoods," or perhaps "Wine Country without the fuss," one of the descriptions that was given to Cloverdale in 2010 when it was voted one of Budget Travel magazine's "coolest small towns."
Others would have preferred to see "Genuinely Cloverdale" on the billboard, though some were lukewarm toward the slogan that came out of the $62,000 branding study for the town several years ago.
From the viewpoint of B&B owner Domenichelli, the billboard's message is "harebrained" and not the best use "from a marketing, tourist perspective."
But "in the grand scheme of things, the billboard won't matter one way or another," she said.
You can reach Staff Writer
Clark Mason at 521-5214 or clark.mason@pressdemocrat.com.
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