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Resident offers volunteer program to remove roadside signs, asks county to set time limits for postings
Summary
A Hampstead resident told commissioners he and volunteers want authority to pick up abandoned roadside signs and proposed time-limit rules and weekly drop-off coordination with code enforcement to reduce litter and free enforcement staff for other work.
During public comment at the Sept. 15 meeting, Hampstead resident Laszlo Almasy proposed a pilot volunteer program to remove abandoned roadside signs and asked commissioners to set a time limit for how long signs may remain in the right of way.
Almasy told the board he and other volunteers are willing to collect and bundle signs and deliver them once weekly to the county code enforcement office in Burgaw and that code enforcement could notify sign owners to pick them up and issue citations if needed. He said volunteers are reluctant to remove signs currently because some people claim the signs are private property and have threatened volunteers; he asked for clearer rules so volunteers would not fear prosecution. Almasy said he had already discussed his plan with the county's code enforcement officer, Charlie, and that volunteers could save the county staff time and reduce roadside litter.
Almasy suggested several policy options: a short allowable-posting window (for example 24 hours), a rule that a sign left after a person leaves the immediate area is considered abandoned, or an allowance for volunteers to collect signs immediately when placed roadside. He said the county could increase revenue by enforcing existing penalties (he said a $100-per-sign penalty had been discussed in the county in the past) and that volunteer collection would reduce the enforcement burden and improve road-edge appearance.
Why it matters: the county and state right-of-way responsibilities, enforcement capacity and public safety concerns intersect on this issue. Commissioners said staff would discuss the idea during the meeting's discussion period and asked for a staff follow-up.
What comes next: commissioners indicated they would refer discussion to staff and that county code enforcement would coordinate next steps; no formal action or ordinance change was made during the meeting.
