Tuesday, June 22, 2004
The moratorium on billboards had lapsed.
WARREN -- A Girard advertising company has filed a lawsuit against the city of Girard for refusing to allow it to erect billboards in the city.
"Girard has plenty of billboards. We don't need any more billboards," Mayor James J. Melfi said today.
Melfi said he doesn't want any more large advertising signs between Interstate 80 and Girard Union Cemetery, which includes the entire downtown stretch.
Named defendants in the complaint filed in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court are Melfi; city engineer David Hall and Linda Dutcher-Casale, former zoning inspector.
The lawsuit filed by Go Outdoors Advertising asks the court to order the officials to issue building permits for four billboard locations along State Street (U.S. Route 422).
The suit filed on behalf of company owner Michael O'Brien says that he was denied permits on several occasions in March, April and May.
At the same time, O'Brien alleges, permits for a billboard at 1300 N. State St. were issued.
Melfi said he did allow the one permit to be issued.
Issue history
In 2000, the mayor explained, he and Dutcher-Casale recommended to city council that a one-year moratorium on billboards be enacted. Lawmakers agreed and imposed it.
It was renewed for another year in 2001, but was forgotten until earlier this year when O'Brien approached the city, the mayor said.
Melfi said at the beginning of this year he told Hall not to issue any permits until lawmakers were told about the expiration of the moratorium, so they could act on it.
In May, council reimposed the moratorium and council's redevelopment committee will design legislation in July to allow billboards in selected areas of the city, Melfi explained.
The complaint says that Law Director Mark Standohar advised city officials to allow the permits to be issued.
The case has been assigned to Judge Peter Kontos.