Among the discussed possibilities were repainting the tower or covering the words with a large tarpaulin. With time running out to comply with the law, civil staff met for a brainstorming session at the Stringtown Restaurant with C.M. "Hop" Ewing, then mayor of Florence, who "sketched different ideas on a napkin". comment by Ewing's grand-daughter Lindsey Whalen October 8, 2008 Ewing ultimately devised the idea of removing the vertical lines at the sides of the M in MALL, adding a stem to make it a Y and adding an apostrophe; resulting in "Y'ALL". Ewing called it a "corny solution, but cost-effective", because the minor alteration would cost one-third of a full repainting. The city paid $472 to the W.T. Marx Company An Amelia, Ohio, company that also does business as WT Marx Company, Inc. of Cincinnati, Ohio, to make the changes.
