Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

Franklin City Manager Rosylen Oglesby announced at the Franklin City Council meeting on Jan. 27 that she had made a hire to help enforce the city code that limits where freestanding signs can be located on public property.

She indicated that Ward 1 Councilman Mark R. Kitchen had inquired about the matter. A local businessman also spoke on the subject during the Citizen’s Time portion of the Jan. 27 council meeting.

The businessman was Jim Hart, owner and operator of Hart Realty Co. and Hart Construction on Armory Drive.

“I want to talk about the signs that are all around town,” he said. “We have a sign ordinance, and we need to enforce it. They’re on public property, and they’re also on private property that they haven’t gotten permission for, they haven’t asked permission to put it on there, and I know that for a fact because they put signs — some of them — on my property without asking as well.”

He emphasized that the city needs to do something.

“On the way here tonight, I counted 24 signs between my office on Armory Drive and College Drive, which is approximately a mile,” he said. “And then there was more coming on downtown.

“It litters our city, it looks bad,” he added. “So we need to get on these signs and make our city look a little bit prettier. I really would like to see something done about that.”

The issue of freestanding signs was on the agenda for the Jan. 27 meeting under the heading “Report on Pending Items.”

“As Councilman Kitchen asked about this, we do have one code enforcer who is responsible for going through and riding around to remove the signs,” Oglesby said. “She is doing that, but just as quickly as she can pull them back down, some are going up. In the meantime to assist her with this, I have hired a part-time code enforcement person to work with her.”

Oglesby noted that this part-time employee has years of experience and will significantly benefit the code enforcer, who is serving in the position for the first time.

“And just to remind everybody, our code does state that you cannot affix any signs to trees, poles or streets, and this is mostly pertaining to public right of way,” Oglesby said. “Private stuff we do not govern, but they are supposed to get those permissions to (affix signs there), and our code does say that any city employee may pull those up. 

“So when I talk to our senior staff in the morning,” she added, “I would just ask them if they are out, especially our Public Works guys, if they see the signs, to pull them up so we can stop having that litter the city as far as that goes.”

“Thank you, ma’am,” Kitchen said. “Thank you.”