Police win award, start removing sandwich signs

For the fourth consecutive year, the Town of Bath Police Department has won the American Automobile Association (AAA) Platinum Community Traffic Safety award. Prior to the four years of platinum awards, Bath police had received two silver awards from the AAA.

This year's award was due largely to the efforts of Bath Police Chief Craig Pearrell, Mayor Susan Webster said.

Pearrell is currently serving a tour of duty with the Security Forces of the 167th Airlift Wing in Iraq.

Sandwich signs

Webster said at the November 18 Bath Town Council meeting she had spoken to Morgan County Chief Deputy and Sheriff Elect Vince Shambaugh about removing sandwich signs advertising local restaurants and businesses from street corners.

Sandwich signs are only allowed in front of the stores they are advertising as long as they are set back from the state road right-of-way.

Signs advertising businesses on street corners, or too close to the state road right-of-way or blocking traffic engineering signs are prohibited by state law because they may obstruct drivers' vision and may cause a traffic hazard if high winds blow a sign into the street.

Webster said she asked Shambaugh to have deputies and town police officers remove sandwich signs that are not in front of the business they are advertising and return them either

to the store owner, or if the store owner is unavailable, to take the sign to the Bath Police Station.