Imagine the impact this will make!

National S.O.S. Week
(Sick of Signs)

May 19-25, 2007


Sick of Signs? Please join the American Association of Code Enforcement in its national campaign to rid our neighborhoods and business districts of illegally posted signs!

The American Association of Code Enforcement is a professional membership organization founded in 1986 dedicated to the advancement of education of code enforcement personnel in the public sector. Hundreds of code enforcement jurisdictions bond in their membership with AACE and have found that a common violation irritant shared by most communities is illegally posted signs on public property. In response to this national problem, the AACE Board of Directors voted to declare 2007 as National S.O.S. (Sick of Signs) Year and May 19 - 25, 2007 as National S.O.S. Week.

AACE has requested nationwide participation of Code Enforcement entities to focus attention to illegal signs posted in the right-of-way, on utility poles, light poles, medians, tree lawns, parkways and on other public property, which clutter our roadways and provide a blighting influence to our neighborhoods. AACE further requested that Code Enforcement Officers take a lead in organizing sign removal sweeps in a national coordinated effort to remove signs and, if the code authorizes, identify violators and prosecute. Code personnel will remove illegally placed signs, keeping track of the number of signs and the amount of time spent removing them. Cities will collect the information from their code enforcement staff and email AACE with the results. AACE will tabulate the results and produce a further national media release for use by all contributing cities.

The illegal signs are normally found clustered at busy intersections and along main thoroughfares. Code enforcement personnel spend an enormous amount of time removing and destroying these illegal signs, pulling them away from other, more serious issues in their neighborhoods. It can also be dangerous to remove these signs, given the heavy traffic along main thoroughfares and at busy intersections.


American Association of Code Enforcement
5310 E. Main Street
Suite 104
Columbus, OH 43213
614.552.2633-Phone
614.868.1177-Fax
info@aace1.com

Making a difference and keeping it clean

So this means that one week of the year, the law actually will be enforced? (Yes, I'm being sarcastic.)

I have worked with CE in a number of cities. Most were concerned about illegal signs. A few were not. One city even told every employee to go out and help remove illegal signs.

A problem with CE departments is that they, like many departments, are overworked and underbudgeted. Some say that they flat-out don't have the funds to prioritize illegal signs.

This is where you come in. Continue to call CE on illegal sign specifics and spammer routes. They can log these reports as part of the process for requesting a larger budget. In addition, go to city council meetings. Bring in a few dozen (or hundred) signs and demand that you want the problem dealt with. Keep in mind that realtors may be on the council or may be influencing the council to permit street spam.

This happened in Colorado Springs with disastrous results.

It's a squeaky wheel kind of thing.

DenverShark

It is listed on both the American Association & the National Association Web Sites. May is going to be a good month!

www.aace1.com
www.naceoi.4t.com

If the quality of your service or product sucks. If your word-of-mouth reputation sucks. Then I guess road
signs are the only way to go.

I want to plan a sign round-up for my city. Does anyone know the 2008 dates for the national sick of signs week?

>I want to plan a sign round-up for my city. Does anyone know
>the 2008 dates for the national sick of signs week?

I plan on doing the same thing here in Las Vegas. I'll contact the AACE to see if they have a date in mind for 2008 and reply with their answer.

Making a difference and keeping it clean

A bandit sign round up sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce is what I am shooting for. The bank can sponsor the hot dogs for lunch.

The NW Houston Chamber of Commerce does this every year.

http://www.bizjournals.com/houston/stories/2004/12/06/story1.html

May 24 to May 31,2008 is the new date.

It's time to get the local Chamber of Commerce or any civic organization to organize a citywide bandit sign sweep. A get-together in a local park afterwards can wrap it up. A local business can donate the hot dogs and someone of stature can give a little speech. This is a great public awareness opportunity and gives the newspapers a story to print.

http://www.aace1.com The calander on this website shows Memorial Day
on Wednesday. Memorial Day is actually on that Monday May 26,2008. The front page of the website has a link to the new dates, and that page shows the correct month dates, but wrong year dates. Please do not be confused by this inaccurate information.

May 24 to May 31,2008 are the new date. Saturday May 31,2008 to the date to do the sign sweep, unless an organization wants to compete with Memorial Day weekend, and all the people busy or leaving town. Either day could work I suppose. Maybe it could be incorporated into an existing event.

We have had some AACE officers involved in the CAUSS forum a few tears back. I think most have drifted off to other things. It would be great if we could reestablish some current contacts to work together better on the sign clean-up week.

Any AACE people out there?

Newbie (not)

Pass this information on to your local news media; they love this kind of stuff. This definitely could boost participation to CAUSS.

Making a difference and keeping it clean

This is on their webpage:

http://aace1.com/displaycommon.cfm?an=1&subarticlenbr=41

National Sick of Signs (SOS) Campaign

2008 is National S.O.S. (Sick of Signs) Year

By Donna Wisniewski, 3rd Vice President

Does your jurisdiction have snipe or bandit signs littering your roadways? Are you responsible for removing those signs? Did you participate in last year’s SOS Campaign?

The AACE Board of Directors has decided to hold the event again this year. Florida has had great success as has Dallas. Past President Kathy Davis suggested making this a national effort. Last year we dedicated the last week in May and the last week in September as our target weeks to remove as many of those signs from our roadways as possible. We had a handful of jurisdictions take part in May. Florida highlights the last week of September with an emphasis on the last Saturday as we kick off National Code Compliance Month.

In May our total signs removed nationwide with 18 jurisdictions participating was 7,957. In September, Florida jurisdictions removed over 21,000 signs.

Is your jurisdiction interested in participating in the sweep this year? Would you like to see your rights-of-way free and clear of such visual clutter? Our focus in May will be from the 24th through the 31st. In September we will focus on the 20th through the 27th. Whatever day or week your jurisdiction decides on, all we ask is that you notify us of your participation and then send us your total numbers.

This is also a good media event for your communities. Let them know you are hosting this event and they will help get the word out that these signs are illegal. Some of our jurisdictions have had great TV and news stories done.

Interested? Please send in your intent to participate to me at dwisniewski@seminolesheriff.org. Let’s get together and beat last year’s totals in a truly National Sick of Signs Campaign.

Takoma Park, MD has a great flier concerning Sick Of Signs week. (See the PDF link)

The city sponsored sign contest will have ice cream available at the round up. The ugliest sign collected wins a prize.

Way to go Takoma Park!

http://www.takomaparkmd.gov/documents/sos_handbill.pdf

http://www.takomaparkmd.gov/

Details:

Sick of Signs Week” - Collect illegal signs! Win BIG prizes!

Illegal signs - known as “bandit signs” or “street spam” - are becoming an increasing problem not only in Takoma Park but nation-wide. What is street spam? Illegal signs - often posted on utility poles - offer to buy your house, tow your unwanted car, mow your lawn, help you lose weight, or encourage you to enroll your kid in camp. It includes signs announcing the yard sale down the street or asking for help in locating a lost pet. During the week of September 20 - 27, residents are encouraged to remove signs illegally posted on utility poles, transformer boxes, bus shelters and other public property in Takoma Park. Learn more about what can you do to help eliminate “street spam”

I'm re-posting this...

Piranhtachew Mon Oct-05-09 11:35 PM
Member since Jan 11th 2009
47 posts

#3. "RE: Press Release - Code Compliance sweeps up signs in rights-of-way"
In response to Reply # 2


http://www.aace1.com/displaycommon.cfm?an=1&subarticlenbr=41

"We are going to focus on September, with the last week of the month being the kickoff for October's National Code Compliance Month (proclaimed as such by the President in October 2005)."

I don't see it on the calendar, though.

Chomp, chomp, chomp...