By David F. Rooney
Oh, those awful in-your-face stencils! Down at City Hall they’re pondering what to do, what to do.
There are really only two choices: get rid of them somehow or cross your fingers and wait until spring all the while hoping that six months of sand, grit, salt and sidewalk plowing will scrape the offensive signs away.
“They are certainly not pretty,” Mayor David Raven said Thursday. “The signs’ message could have been delivered another way.”
He said he doubts they’ll last through the winter, but that is for Council to decide when it meets on Tuesday afternoon.
It could decide to have the signs painted over but two things it likely won’t authorize are sandblasting or grinding. City workers tried grinding away one of the signs at Orton Avenue and Second Street East — just a block from City Hall — but the result see the photo (above) was not pretty. Sandblasting, which has been suggested by some people will likely only result in permanently etching the stencils into the pavement.
And then there’s the financial question: will Council really want to spend more money to get rid of these things?
Someone is doubtless sorry they ordered the stencilled horrors but we’re unlikely to learn that person’s identity. This will be almost certainly be dealt with in camera as a personnel issue.
