EDITORIAL: Signs of the times
Feb. 12—Signs, signs everywhere a sign — especially during an active campaign season. And, with the current crop of political contenders, "active" is an understatement in Limestone County.
Political signs are the lifeblood of any candidacy. As long as a campaign has the funds to manufacture road signs, flyers and bumper stickers, the expense of plastering those mini-billboards is limited to the printing and the work of motivated supporters takes over.
Unfortunately, some of that pent-up motivation can be misguided, and too often signs and stickers end up being posted in illegal areas. When this happens, they become trash — and trash that often must be dealt with at the expense and energy of municipal or private means.
To avoid running afoul of the law — and in some cases, a $100 fine — municipalities and the state have sign ordinances in place, rules that include the placement of campaign materials.
Simply put, if you don't own the land, lamp post, billboard or window you want to plaster, you need permission to post. This includes the posting of materials on right-of-ways, which at the town, city, county and state level is never allowed without proper permission. That $100 fine? It definitely applies here — and just because someone posted there before you doesn't make your post legal. It just means that county or city sanitation workers haven't gotten to it yet.
And along that vein ... although we're still weeks away from a primary, and months away from a general election, let's remember that well begun is half done: Once you've properly posted your campaign materials, it's important to later remove them when elections are over. One person's trash is another's treasure, but most of us can agree that months-old campaign signs fall into the remove or recycle pile.
