One of the main issues in town that has been revisited countless times since incorporation in 1989 is business signage.

Our town leaders through the decades have been wrestling with multi-faceted issues surrounding signs – What can and cannot be regulated? What about good taste? Freedom of speech? How big should signs be? Banners? How often? A-frame signs? How many?

We don’t pretend there are easy and clear-cut answers to this dilemma. All municipalities struggle with a happy medium. The town wants to be “business friendly,” yet it’s clear that “anything goes” is not a good policy, either.

However, by the Town Council eliminating the requirement for businesses to obtain a cheap permit to use an A-frame sign, it seems members are simply throwing up their hands in a “we give up” fashion.

Compliance rates are not good, so staff recommended simply throwing out the permit requirement, since so many business owners were not even bothering to obtain a permit in the first place. No doubt the town doesn’t want to spend money for additional enforcement personnel, but eliminating the permits is not the way to effectively raise compliance.

Apparently no definitive plan was enacted last week to further educate business owners about the proper use of A-frame signs. It will be an interesting debate come December when the council once again must consider extending the sunset date for using A-frame signs.

Businesses may want to seriously think about conforming to existing rules, otherwise the privilege of using A-frame signs may be removed all together.