An employee of the Maine Department of Transportation visited South Bristol recently to remove directional signs belonging to Coveside Restaurant and Marina and The Unique Yankee Inn after a complaint from a resident.
At a July 3 meeting of the South Bristol Board of Selectmen, Selectmen Chris Plummer and Ken Lincoln expressed confusion about the complaint. “Why does that sign bother anybody?” Lincoln said.
South Bristol Administrative Assistant Beverly Eugley said she knew the identity of the complainer, but declined to share that information with The Lincoln County News.
Eugley said she drove around South Bristol to see what other signs might stand in violation of state rules. “We’re literally talking six signs,” Eugley said. Many of the signs are for seasonal businesses, including Coveside.
Selectmen indicated they would communicate with the Department of Transportation (DOT) to determine if they need to establish a sign ordinance or a regulation to supersede state rules.
According to Richard Munson, co-owner of the Unique Yankee Inn, Chip Kelly, a Field Supervisor with the DOT, showed up at his bed and breakfast on May 24, sign in hand.
In a July 3 interview at the Inn, Munson described his interaction with Kelly. “They were very polite,” Munson said. According to Munson, Kelly told him “The sign is illegal. You can’t have it.”
The “sign” in question actually consists of two signs and a container full of brochures, all attached to a post about four feet high. The signs read “B&B 100 yards on right” and “Public Rose Garden Open at B&B… Open Dawn to Dusk.”
The post has stood at the corner of East Side and Coveside Roads since 2004, Munson said.
“It’s a dark corner at night,” Munson said. “People from out of state have a hard time finding it… We felt the sign was essential.” Repeating a concern of town officials, Munson noted that the Coveside Road sign is set back from the road and partially obscured by trees.
Shortly after the removal, Munson wrote a letter to Kelly to protest the action. According to the letter, Munson erected the sign “with the permission of the Board of Selectmen and the Administrative Office.”
Later, Munson consulted with his lawyer, David Levesque of Damariscotta. In an e-mail, Levesque told Munson that Maine law “prohibits the erection of signs visible to the traveling public from a public way… so it appears that the removal of your sign was proper.”
According to Levesque, if South Bristol has “an ordinance or regulation” regarding such signs, “it appears to have the authority to allow you to erect the sign.”
“Hopefully the town will do that and we can put the sign back up,” Munson said. “It’s been there for five years now.” For now, the offending sign stands at the end of Munson’s driveway on Coveside Road.
Meanwhile, in an apparent show of disdain for the state’s actions, Coveside Restaurant already put their sign back up.
Amanda Sprague, a manager at Coveside, said she doesn’t know how the sign found its way back to the corner. In a July 3 interview at the restaurant, Sprague did express frustration with the state’s action.
“It’s a homemade sign,” Sprague said. “It’s not like it’s harming anything.”
Without the sign, Sprague said, “people couldn’t find us.” One customer who lives on the island told Sprague the restaurant needed a sign because people looking for the restaurant were coming to his house.
