If you put a garage sale sign too close the city right-of-way, do not be surprised if a man driving a white truck comes along and pulls it.

Chances are the man driving the truck is working for the city’s zoning inspector, and this is part of his job.

Oregon resident Mark Pollock, who lives at the corner of Wheeling and Eastvale streets, has had run-ins with residents who think he is stealing their sign.

“Nobody seems to know where to put them, and when they put them too close to the street and the city takes it and then I have people accusing me of taking their sign,” Pollock said. “I’m saying, ‘What the heck would I want with their sign?’ There’s not a huge resale value for garage sale signs.

“I’m tired of arguing with these idiots. I’m generalizing because some people, I tell them the city took it, they say, ‘Oh, really?’ They are real cool about it. I’ve had a couple that I don’t know if it’s the way I look or what, but they just will not believe. Some people are just argumentative anyways.

“The funny thing was, one day some guy accused me of taking his sign, but somebody else had put their sign far enough back that the city didn’t take it, so I had two signs in the yard. The city took one, the other one wasn’t taken, and he was like, ‘Well, why didn’t they take their sign then?’ I’m like, ‘Well probably because it’s farther back than yours.’ Then I’m like, ‘Oh, why do I have to go through this?’”

Pollock added, “I’ve had people tape them to the stop sign pole, or tape them to the telephone pole, and of course the city does not like that either and they are going to snatch their signs.”

Jim Gilmore, Oregon’s chief building inspector, says permits are not necessary to post garage sales notices. But there are reasons why city ordinances do not allow signs in the right-of-way.

“It simply is this — that you cannot have signs on telephone poles, you can’t have it on the city right-of-way, but you can have it on your own private property and we do allow if they have permission from the homeowner to put it on another homeowner’s yard,” Gilmore said. “We don’t really touch any sign that is on private property, but we do pull them if they are in the public right-of-way.

“As you can see, at telephone poles at corners of busy intersections, they are just piled full of nails and fasteners from people posting signs up there, and we are constantly tearing them down. We run, in the beginning of the season, an ad giving the rules, but you know how that goes.”

Where is the public right-of-way? It’s not always easy to tell, but Gilmore gives some general rules to follow.

“It’s not a set rule, but in general its one foot on the side of the sidewalk toward their own private property — that is the property line. Then, where there are unimproved lots, generally, but not always, it’s where the telephone poles are.” Gilmore explained.

“That’s not always the case. There are spots in the city where it’s not as well-defined. But, we work with people. We pull the signs generally and we keep them at our backdoor for the homeowners to come and pick them up and/or we have the same problem with property that is being sold where there is an open house or stuff like that.

“We don’t generally trash them, and a lot of times we’ll set them up near their porch if they are in the city right-of-way. I constantly have to remind the inspectors to put them at the back door, but that’s the rule,” added Gilmore.

Pollock’s parents bought the house in 1960, and he inherited it after his parents passed away. He moved back in 2005, but it’s the home he was raised in.

Pollock says since his home is located on the corner of through streets, the signs often appear from garage sales being held across town.

“I’ll get them from a mile away and stuff. It’s not like it’s my neighbor,” Pollock said. “Last year, I had a couple arguments with people and this year I already had one.

“I’ve had a couple run-ins with people who have gotten downright nasty about it. He demanded the money and said I owed him for that sign. He said, ‘I should make you pay for the lost business, too?’ I about wanted to tell him that what I wanted to give him wasn’t what he wanted, but then I would have been at fault and I would have been in jail. But he said he wasn’t leaving my front porch until I paid for his sign.

“Ninety-percent of the people that put a sign in my yard, they come back and get it and they are real nice about it. But I’ve had a few that put it up there, and a few weeks later the sign is still there. Come on, people. I don’t have a problem with people putting them up as long as they come back and get them and don’t leave them up there for a month or something. That is my only problem about people that put them up,” Pollock continued.

“I don’t have a problem with them sticking them out there. That’s not a big deal. People are just trying to make money. If somebody wants to try and make a buck, so be it, you know. My wife enjoys garage sales and she will drive around all day going to them.

“But if they put two or three signs up and one of them is gone, then they are wondering, ‘Well, why didn’t we get any business?’ They think they can just stick a sign up. They haven’t got any idea.”

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