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Date: 8/2/2023
SOUTHWICK — Citing an unprecedented number of temporary private business signs along the town’s streets, Select Board Chair Doug Moglin said during the board’s meeting Monday he’s sending a formal letter to the building inspector to take action.
“There has been a mushrooming of temporary signs. They’re showing up everywhere,” Moglin said during the meeting.
Board member Diane Gale echoed Moglin’s concerns.
“Yes. It’s rampant,” she said.
Building Inspector Kyle Scott said he considers the temporary advertising signs a blight issue and a traffic safety concern, and that there are “frequent offenders,” businesses with multiple signs around town. He said the most frequent offenders are contractors, cell phone service providers and companies that advertise buying homes.
During the board’s July 24 meeting, Moglin mentioned seeing signs apparently put up by a power washing contractor and that he’s also seen them along roadways in residential neighborhoods.
Scott said what he typically does when traveling to scheduled inspections and passes an area with a proliferation of signs, he will stop and pick them up.
And that, he said, can often create a hazardous situation for him while vehicles are “whizzing by.”
While he has the authority to fine the businesses that put up the signs, he often will contact them first to give them a chance to remove them.
“They do cost a lot of money,” Scott said about the signs.
In addition to the brief discussion about the temporary sign problem, the board also approved spending on several Community Preservation Committee projects that were approved by voters during May’s Town Meeting.
The board approved a CPC grant agreement with the Cemetery Commission of $105,000 for tree removal at the Old Cemetery.
It also approved CPC grants of $16,500 to repair the bronze plaques at the town’s Veterans Memorial and Old Cemetery, and $70,000 to rehabilitate the slate roof and cupola at the police station, as well as a $294,000 grant for the Whalley Park Spray Park project.