What goes up must (or should?) come down

I’m armed with an assortment of tacks, tape, plastic sleeves and a staple gun. I’m on a mission and at the ready as I drive to a central point and hoof it around from public place to public place hawking the event du jour through the flyer in hand. I need to saturate the six towns with flyers, calendars and brochures and I discover all kinds of handy tips in the process. (Did you know that CVS and Brooks don’t allow any community information to be posted due to corporate policy?)

There are high-traffic areas that look accommodating, and community bulletin boards unprotected from the elements, and sitting areas piled high with magazines, and cards and weekly flyers. In the process I realize that although there are no official rules on poster hanging, I believe there is an unspoken and yet to be documented etiquette.

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• Ask permission. Many businesses want to approve the content of what they are hanging or displaying. Also, some people just want the courtesy of being acknowledged!

• Each town has very different regulations regarding signs. You should call the town hall and they can direct you to the right official. Also, the state has regulations about putting signs on state property and will remove them.

• Don’t cover up or remove someone else’s information if it hasn’t expired. It’s just not nice.

• Bring your own supplies. Taking someone else’s lone tack or worn tape is tacky.

• Do the neighborly thing and remove info that has expired, and throw it out. If everyone did that, we’d never have old items flapping on posts and blowing around.

• Why not leave the wall, board, post or table neater than you found it? It just takes a minute to straighten up.

• If a sign has blown over where you’re putting yours up, re-erect it. And don’t place your sign in the sight line of other signs.

• Keep a list of where you post items for two reasons: The person who takes over your volunteer job next year will appreciate the time you save him or her, and you’ll be able to return to the scene to collect what you left, because of course if you don’t, that would be littering, wouldn’t you agree? We should set a good example for our children and community youth groups.

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In our corner of the world, there are more events happening then we can keep track of. With the onset of spring, the tag sales will start again. They all generate flyers, brochures, signs, and posters: all necessary to promote the happening, yet when does it all get collected? Frequently those signs stapled (illegally) to telephone poles wait for weather to disintegrate them.   

Along those lines, businesses in general should be responsible for removing signs when the business closes or moves. (Isn’t there some irony in a zoning commission allowing out-of-business or vacant stores and restaurants to keep their multiple signs up, yet a struggling business can’t have a sandwich board sign? Not to mention how misleading it is for visitors.) But that’s another topic for another day...

The moral to the story (which I hope you’ll take to heart, and do your part) is: What goes up should come down...by the hand that put it up to begin with.

Sandy Gomez is a lifelong Salisbury resident.