Any political signs placed in the right-of-way of county roads will be removed at the direction of the Porter County Board of Commissioners.
The directive started Monday.
“You cannot put these in the road right-of-way. It’s a state law,” said Board of Commissioners President Jim Biggs, R-North. He said it was brought to his attention last year that different county roads have different right-of-way depths.
Given that, Biggs said placing signs behind utility poles or about 15 feet from the edge of the road is a good rule of thumb. “What we need to do as commissioners is come up with a blanket ordinance that states you cannot place signs within so many feet of blacktop or an intersection,” he said.
The law applies to all signs, not just political. Real estate and yard sale signs will also be removed if they’re in violation. Biggs said the reasons are twofold: not only do they draw drivers’ attention away from the roadway, but it can be dangerous to pound poles into right-of-ways as they are used for underground utilities.
Porter County Clerk Jessica Bailey oversees the Elections & Registration Office and said 811 contacted the office to ask them to publish a post asking people to call 811 for locates before they dig to install political signs. She said some of the larger ones have been installed with posts several inches in diameter that are being pounded several feet into the ground.
“I put it up on our Facebook post and people are unhappy about it,” she said. “The bigger the sign, the deeper the hole. I don’t think they’re necessarily concerned about the skinny ones.”
The Porter County Highway Department will be holding on to the removed signs. Candidates who wish to have them back can call the main highway garage and ask where to pick them up.
Shelley Jones is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.