Some businesses are determined to keep signs up

~ They are considering a petition for changing Cape Girardeau's ordinance.

Unhappy shop owners in and around the Town Plaza in Cape Girardeau say they need their signs, and some are determined to keep them up no matter what the city's orders are.

"I'm leaving my sign up. It's staying there," Millie Yates said, gesturing to a 6-foot-long red banner strung between two pillars outside her beauty salon.

Yates owns Cape Cuts at 10 S. Plaza Way. Nuisance abatement officers have visited her store twice to ask that she take down her banner, which advertises a deal on tanning. To date she has refused to comply.

Almost all banner signs are unlawful under Cape Girardeau's sign ordinance passed by Cape Girardeau City Council April 17.

"I am a small business owner, and I have this teeny-tiny little sign out front that doesn't hurt anybody, and they want me to take it down. It's not on the street, it's not on the right of way, the only way somebody could get hurt is if they got clotheslined by it," she said.

Spreading out photographs, Yates displays the many infractions she sees going unenforced under the ordinance. She says until she sees the same standard being applied to all businesses, she's not budging from her stance.

"Why should I? When Wal-Mart has got a sign on every post -- look at this, a Dr Pepper sign, a Pepsi sign, they've got banners everywhere," she said. "How can the city in good conscience come out here and tell me to take my pitiful little banner down?"

But her efforts do not end with taking photos.

"We're talking about trying to write a petition," she said. "I'm going through the ordinance step by step, and the things we feel like are unfair we're going to petition the city to change."

A petition to change the ordinance would require signatures of 10 percent of the people registered to vote in Cape Girardeau as of April 4 -- or more than 2,000 signatures. If those signatures were gathered, the council could either approve the changes or submit them to a popular vote within 60 days of receiving the valid petition.

Just across the way at 50 S. Plaza Way is the used-book store, Book Rack. It also displays a banner strung between two pillars reading "Open Sundays."

Owner Scott McClellan said his family-owned store has been in business for 30 years and this is the first sign they've ever displayed. But even though he's not attached to it, he says leaving it up may be worth a fight.

"The sign itself is no big deal, I could take it down tomorrow and it wouldn't affect anything. But to us it's a constitutional matter and a matter of principle," McClellan said.

He says the two times a nuisance abatement officer came to alert him of his violation, he listened politely but respectfully declined to comply.

"My understanding is they don't want to fine anyone. They're basically trying to intimidate people into pulling things down and we ... well, we're not intimidatable," McClellan said. "At this time given the legal reading I've had and the consultation I've done, we may challenge it in court if it comes to that."

And enforcement for those owners might not be too far off.

Martha Brown, planner for the city, said the next step will be a written request from assistant city attorney Reagan Holliday for shop owners to remove their signs. If after 30 days the owners have not complied they will receive a citation and a judge can then decide to affix a fine of as much as $500 per day. Brown says she does not know when these letters will go out.

Also fighting the city is Daniel Wilson, co-owner of Money Time Check Cashers & Pawn at 1901 Independence St. He was alerted in a letter that the orange temporary sign advertising his store is in the city right of way and therefore illegal. But he says this hasn't stopped him from placing it there.

"I put it out there every morning and take it down every night. I'm well within my rights," said Wilson, flashing a smile. "You can see I've got kind of a libertarian way of looking at things."

Wilson says he takes a sort of pride in thumbing his nose at what he believes to be a wrong-headed ordinance. "It's ridiculous to see them going around here chasing signs," he said. "I'd like to see them cleaning up some of the other crime in the city. Like when you're doing triage in an emergency room, you do the important things first and the stupid things last."

For their part, police still say they would like people to comply of their own free will.

"We're still trying to educate people," Lt. Mark Majoros said. "Hopefully they'll abide. But if they don't, we are not forcing anyone to take down signs. Our officers are instructed to just leave and present the paperwork to the assistant city attorney's office."

tgreaney@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 245