AUGUSTA — Maine’s pioneering law banning highway billboards, enacted in 1977, is under siege at the State House.
Lawmakers there are lining up behind nine bills that would grant variances to state sign regulations for individual businesses and attractions.
The last state-acquired billboard in Maine, on Route 1 in York County, is cut down by chain saw circa 1984.
“Everybody wants a sign,” said Senate Minority Leader Michael Thibodeau, R-Winterport, in testimony in favor of a bill that would help a snowmobile club in his town keep a sign.
But managers of Maine roads and a major environmental group say granting piecemeal changes would weaken sign laws.
The Maine Department of Transportation wants all such bills tabled, and the Legislature’s Transportation Committee already has honored that request in three instances.
Read the rest of the story.
My name is Keith Michaud and this is “Letters From Away,” a blog written by a Mainer living outside the comfortable and sane confines of New England. The blog is intended for Mainers, whether they live in the Pine Tree State or beyond, and for anyone who has loved ’em, been baffled by ’em or both. Ayuh, I am “from away.” Worse still, I live on the Left Coast – in California. Enjoy! Or not. Your choice.
Letters From Away 