Thursday, August 28, 2008

Opinion: 1-800-Got-Junk-ie Streets in Fayette County, Georgia

I don't know who owns 1-800-Got-Junk. I'm not 100% sure how they operate but I "assume" they come pick up junk from your home for a fee or maybe if it's good enough junk they pay you ;-).

What I do know is that periodically someone goes through Fayette County sticking 1-800-got-Junk signs all over the place. A day, two days, three days later, the cities and county take all the signs down. Then a few months or weeks later, the signs pop up again.

Now maybe it's part of 1-800-Junk's advertising strategy to make a place look junkie, kind of a theme: We'll make you county look junkie by sticking up signs so you'll think about the junk in your garage and call us... Or maybe they're just thinking "boy we love counties with sign ordinances 'cause ours really stand out..."

There are sign ordinances in the county. They can put a sign in your yard if you let them, but they're not supposed to be sticking them in the right-of-way and they're not supposed to just be sticking them anywhere and everywhere.

Can you imagine what the county would look like if every business chose to stick their signs around like that?

Whether you agree or disagree with the sign ordinances in the cities and the county, they are there and the kind of companies I choose to do business with would respect the local rules and ordinances. If they're the kind of company that chooses to thumb their noses at rules or the kind that just doesn't choose to check out ordinances (I mean, gee, they have to notice they're the only company out there with signs around, should ring some kind of bell in the old brain wouldn't you think?), then they don't make the short or long list of businesses I might call.

I think that if the owners of a business aren't old enough to know better or intelligent enough to check the sign ordinances once, then maybe the powers-that-be should give them a pass. Pick up the signs, toss them in the trash and hope the guys learn their lesson.

However, if they do it again, they can't plead ignorance. The owners should be fined and then have to go out picking up trash on the streets for a few weekends, starting with their own signs.

- Janet McGregor Dunn
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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Why bicker about such a benign thing? There are much more malignant issues to deal with. Is this the most exciting thing going on in your city? Do you ever speed? Should you get fined more often? Should you go and pick trash out of ditches and rights of way because, unlike a sign, you are actually endangering peoples' lives? Nobody is perfect. Who has the right to cast the first stone? We should support local business growth in the effort of strengthening the economy. I say, all entrepeneurs out there, get aggressive with your businesses (in a non-threatening manner) so we can get back to normal. For the most part, we are all consumers and laborers. The guy putting the sign out labors in order to increase consumer spending. More consumer spending leads to more guys putting out signs. More signs lead to more business. More business equates to a stronger economy. We need to support American business owners. I do not own this business you speak of, by the way. I myself am a meek laborer. But I support American business men/women. They are the modern day frontiersmen who live out the dream upon which this country was founded. Nothing about our country's history is pristine. We have always had a tendency to do whatever it takes to be strong.