Tis the season for political yard signs to pop up in and around many Kentucky neighborhoods. There is a right and a wrong way to stick the wired candidate promotion in the ground.
Lexington Code Enforcement Director Lee Steele said it’s a pretty straightforward policy. Political signs can go in homeowners’ front yards, but not on public property, the right of way or utility strip in front of a house, and not in roadway medians. Steele said citing violators with fines is just not practical.
“You actually have to catch the person in the act of planting the sign in the right of way in order to issue that citation. And that’s where it’s an impossibility,” said Steele.
During a political season, like now, Steele noted his 15 crew members pull violating signs and place them on the front porch with a code enforcement phone number.
Steele added sometimes there’s a mad flurry of sign postings the day before an election. And he said that’s often in off-limits spots.
“Folks run out and put out all they have left and that’s usually where they go in the highest traffic area which is always your medians heading into town or on the big thoroughfares so, we do know they get excited and sometimes they just do that, and we’ll go out there and round them up.”
Steele said a presidential year election tends to produce more sign activity than a governor’s race.
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