GUILDERLAND — The town has announced plans to place banners along the roadways in Guilderland Center, to highlight the area’s history and to calm traffic.

“The placement of banners is … a recognized traffic-calming device because it gives drivers notice that they're passing through a well-established community,” said town Supervisor Peter Barber.

Barber said that this initiative, like the recent “Your speed is” radar signs that went up in Guilderland Center, is part of an effort to maintain a safe environment for residents, pedestrians, and persons involved with the high school. (See related story.)

Thirty spring-summer banners, and 30 fall-winter banners will all bear the same text, reading, “Welcome to historic Guilderland Center, settled 1730s.”

Photos on the spring-summer banners will be of Dutchmen Field at Roger Keenholts Park, Freeman House, Village Queen Fire Engine, and Frenchs Hollow Bridge. The photos for fall-winter banners will be of the Mynderse-Frederick House, the Cobblestone Schoolhouse, and Centrepointe Community Church.

Banners will hang from utility poles on Route 146, School Road, and Depot Road. There may be a few at the highway department, the transfer station, and the animal shelter as well.

The town is seeking sponsors — whether businesses, individuals, or families — for the banners. Sponsors will be listed on the town website, according to Taylor Mead of the town’s Parks and Recreation Department.

The cost of sponsoring a banner is $125, which includes $80 for the brackets used to hang them, Mead said, adding that sponsorship requests are due by June 15.

Some employees in the Parks and Recreation Department live in Altamont, Mead said, and have loved the banners that hang along the streets there. The village’s spring-summer banners say, “Welcome to Altamont, est. 1890,” while the fall-winter banners picture the historic train station at the village’s center, now the home of the Altamont Free Library.

Former Altamont mayor James Gaughan said that banners were first hung in the village from 2006 to 2007, and that they were paid for out of village funds. The effort, Gaughan said, was spearheaded by then-trustee, now mayor, Kerry Dineen.

“With all the historic landmarks that Guilderland Center has, it seems like a great opportunity to recognize that,” Mead said.