UTICA - When workers took down the old marquee at the Stanley back in September, theatre officials said the new marquee would be in place in mid-to-late-November. That obviously didn't happen.

But the new marquee arrived from Ohio last night, and this morning workers began the time-consuming job of putting it in place. They couldn't have picked a worse day to install it, as there was pouring rain and freezing cold the entire time we were down there this morning.

Basically, a big crane hoists the marquee up, one panel at a time, and workers waiting up top kind of put it in place. There are large bolts that attach the panels to the theatre. the theatre manager is thrilled to finally have the marquee back.

"We'd seen some pictures of it they'd sent us from the factory in Ohio," said John Faust of the Stanley Theatre. "But seeing the real thing is exciting. You forget how big it is for one thing. And the scale of it, and the colors are just spectacular. We're very thrilled about the quality of the work that's been done and how it's going to look when it's all up in place."

John Faust estimates it'll take most of the week to get those panels up and you'd better believe they're planning a huge production for the first time they kick on that fancy full color LED display. But they have no idea when that's going to be.

There's still a lot of behind the scenes wiring that has to happen, and they'll keep their fingers crossed that when they flip that switch, lights do indeed come on.

The unveiling of the lights will happen some time next month.