News Photo by Julie Goldberg Alpena High School’s digital sign at the corner of Bagley Street and 3rd Avenue is seen on Thursday. The sign hasn’t worked since last summer, and Principal Tom Berriman is working on getting donations to update the sign.

ALPENA — Alpena High School is updating its digital sign at the corner of Bagley Street and 3rd Avenue that hasn’t worked since the summer.

During the summer, the school lost communication with the sign, so nothing could be taken off of it.

Later in the summer, the sign completely died, so the electricity to it was cut, Principal Tom Berriman said Thursday.

Berriman received permission from Alpena Public Schools Superintendent John VanWagoner in August to seek donations to update the sign and get it back to working.

Updates will include repainting the sign and adding new lettering.

“The skeleton of the sign is still in good shape,” Berriman said. “There’s just a lot of work that needs to be done on it with both on the skeleton and inside, but the skeleton is in good shape, and can be used, it just needs to be updated and look nicer.”

Berriman has reached out to local credit unions for donations. He’s received $13,000 of the needed $20,000 so far.

“Once we get all that, we’re going to get a sign that’s a lot better than what we have,” he said. “We’ll be able to control it from the building.”

Berriman said the goal is to have the sign working again by the end of May, or even the end of April, if weather cooperates.

“It’s a high-traffic area, so we need to have something out there that’s visible, that looks nice, and can demonstrate some of the things that we have going on,” he said. “It’s just something that needs to be done.”