FRESNO, Calif. (KSEE/KGPE) – The State Center Community College Board of Trustees approved a contract last night to have a historic Fresno landmark removed and replaced with a replica.

The “G” on top of the former Guarantee Savings building in downtown Fresno will be taken down in about four weeks.

“We love that the sign is an iconic part of, the Fresno skyline and we want to keep it that way,” said Christine Miktarian, Vice Chancellor of Operations for SCCCD. “We were concerned about how that would be perceived to the public thinking that we were going to take it down and not bring it back, but we are.”

Miktarain said the reason for the switch is because the current G is not structurally sound.

“We purchased the building in 2018 and we had plans to refurbish it and light it up and spruce up the rusty pieces of it,” she said. “When we were talking to contractors about saving it, we asked them can you save it? Can you bring it down? Can you do something with it, refurbish it, and put it back he said yeah I know we can’t do that.”

Experts agreed that the sign could not be saved and would be too dangerous to leave at the top of the building.

“The old sign that used to light up blue, red, and white the new sign we do plan to come back with new LED lighting that will match the lighting that we have on the exterior part of the building,” she said. “We did say if there is any way you can save it. Please save it. There have been some requests that potentially may be the Fresno fair would want it. We are not sure, that is an option and we want to keep that open if we can.”

The district has created a website to keep the public updated about the progress, the link can be found here.