Taking signs down long overdue

By Staff
Driving through the county Monday to take pictures for our 2005 Progress section, we were struck by the beauty of Franklin County.
We were also struck by the absurd number of political signs still dotting the landscape around our county.
Political candidates took down their bigger signs soon after the election, but the smaller signs on telephone polls around the county seem to have been forgotten by a couple of candidates.
We've devoted this space once before to political signs, and thanks to hard work by most of the candidates, most of the signs came down.
But now, it's beyond acceptable that there are numerous signs still being displayed.
A stray sign here and there across the county could be forgiven, but for one candidate in particular, there seem to be signs every other mile. One sign was even spotted advertising a candidate for last year's primary election. That's unbelievable.
Political candidates are typically people who want to make Franklin County a better place. They are ideally good citizens who set an example for the rest of us.
But leaving signs up three months after a general election is basically wanton littering, and it's just irresponsible and unacceptable.
We realize it's not easy work to take the signs down — but it takes about the same effort to put them up, and the candidates obviously managed to do that.
The one candidate who has the most signs still up ran on a slogan of "changing business as usual" in the county. "Business as usual" means taking down your signs after the election, so it appears that slogan was truthful.
All sarcasm aside, it is way past time for all the candidates to get their signs down.