Last night on the news I saw a report that the city of Mesquite is putting a bounty on signs and they invited anyone to bring them in and receive 20 cents per sign. I am anxious to see how well this works and if any other cities follow suit. I personally think it's a great idea and good publicity to stop these illegal signs. What do you all think?
#2. "RE: Mesquite put a bounty on signs" In response to Reply # 1
For validation puposes, which news media?
I can just see it now, two pickups pull up in front of the city hall loaded brim full. Two inspectors go out to inventory the signs in our tripple digit temps. After counting about fifty signs in the first truck, they stop and indicate that this sign counting "is really not my job". The supervisor indicates that the pickup drivers will need to come back next week when they can get the sign counting classified under proper title and classification.
I know this sounds ridiculous, but so does the 20¢ per sign.
#3. "RE: Mesquite put a bounty on signs" In response to Reply # 2
It was channel 8 news midday -- Wednesday, I think. I talked with code enforcement in Mesquite and have some details. I want to track down a couple of details and will then post what I found out.
#4. "RE: Mesquite put a bounty on signs" In response to Reply # 0
Apparently it was on Channel 8 at 1 pm Wednesday. I could not find any video on the Channel 8 website. Information from the code enforcement department in Mesquite is as follows.
They have had a volunteer sign collector program for about two months and they are very happy with how it has worked out. Civic groups (scouts and others) have signed up for a week at a time. They get training before they go out. (Mesquite has paid permits for weekend home builder signs so these, of course, are not to be picked up.) They have been paying the civic groups $0.25 per sign collected. They are reviewing the overall results to-date to see if any changes might be needed. The civic groups do not need to be in Mesquite.
Before this program, the code inspectors had been averaging 800 signs picked up per month.
#5. "RE: Mesquite put a bounty on signs" In response to Reply # 4
That puts somewhat of a different twist on the issue. 800 a week in Mesquite is not that big of a deal. They could likely get tha many in a day if a couple of guys worked together and was serious about it. US 80 really gets hit hard especially from Town East Shopping Center out to about the county line road on the east side of town. It's not as bad as it was two or three years ago, but it's still bad.
