A new electronic message board — A new electronic message board—Cambria’s first such street-side billboard— has been installed in front of the Old Grammar School at 1350 Main St.

Messages began rolling and flashing on the screen after school district and Allied Arts Association employees and volunteers were given training Tuesday, July 17, on how to operate the sign.

The sign will post information about activities at the Cambria Center for the Arts (CCFA) theater and gallery and at Coast Unified School District campuses, as well as the time and temperature.

CCFA has also been called the Gallery at the Old Grammar School and Theater at the Old Grammar School .

Allied Arts intiated acquisition of the sign last year to help promote the gallery and theater, and will be excused from paying its customary $500-a-month rent until it has paid off the nearly $16,000 bill for the sign. However, the school district will own the sign, according to an agreement approved by association and school boards earlier this year.

The gallery/theater rent money usually goes into the schools’ custodial budget, district Superintendent Chris Adams told his trustees Feb. 9. “Part of the requirement when the school bond was passed was this was supposed to be a community facility. This sign helps both (Allied Arts and the schools),” he said. —Kathe Tanner