Letter from Cindy Falk

It’s About Sign Law, Not Banners

Veterans Day is almost two months away, and yet Cooperstown (on the pages of this newspaper, social media, and generally) has been abuzz with discussion about how best to honor our veterans. The reason is that the Board of Trustees of the Village of Cooperstown was approached in July with a request to hang “Hometown Heroes” banners from the lampposts on Main Street, as has been done in other local communities such as Oneonta, Milford, and Cherry Valley.

The Village of Cooperstown sign law, which regulates banners as signs, states: “Signs are not permitted in the median between the sidewalk and the curb, nor attached to trees, bushes, support wires, street/municipal signs or utility poles located within the median” and “No sign shall be placed or located upon public property or the property of public utilities unless so authorized by other provisions in this chapter.”

When these provisions were written years ago, I am fairly sure that no one envisioned the request to hang banners to honor veterans on utility poles. Instead, these rules were enacted to promote public safety by ensuring sight lines were left clear and motorists were not distracted by added signage. One common complaint is the large number of signs of all forms that line our streets.

Have there been exceptions to these rules in the sign law? You may remember that in 2020, the Board of Trustees approved hanging temporary banners showing CCS graduates on the lampposts on Main Street when the pandemic forced the cancellation of traditional graduation activities. That violated the sign law, which at that unusual time was not evoked in the decision making.