Candidates, businesses should take note of city’s ordinance against signs on public property

Published 11:00 pm Saturday, April 12, 2014

Collected roadside signs sit inside the Selma Police Department on Friday. (Tim Reeves | Times-Journal)

Collected roadside signs sit inside the Selma Police Department on Friday. (Tim Reeves | Times-Journal)

With elections coming up on June, 3, it seemed campaign sings were popping up all over Selma — on wooden utility poles and on roadsides.

It was hard not to know it was election season, with an election signs lining nearly every street corner. It became impossible to drive through Selma without seeing someone’s name plastered on a billboard or roadside sign.

It wasn’t just candidates for office, many of the signs were advertising food specials or events.

Email newsletter signup

There’s just one problem. Many of the signs were illegally placed on public property.

According to the city’s ordinance,“No person shall attach or support any sign of any kind … to any telephone pole, tree, pipe, or other structure or support, which telephone pole, tree, prior or other structure or support is located on any street or sidewalk or on public property in the City of Selma.”

The candidates’ campaign employees could have just haphazardly placed the signs. Or perhaps, the candidates just wanted to claim prime real estate in Selma.

Either way, We are glad the Selma City Council decided to begin enforcing the ordinance. The ordinance is law and should be enforced at all times.

As election season approaches, we hope candidates take note of their missing signs. They haven’t been destoryed or thrown away. Rather, the signs are kept in the police department or other city buildings for candidates to pick the signs up and potentially use in another location. Please advertise your candidacy and lunch meal deals on private property rather than areas funded by taxpayer dollars.