Mr. Jazzy, Killer, Sonny Boy, and Mr. Crazy say FREE THE TELEPHONE POLES!

Just this spring, art appeared on telephone poles around town. Hand painted wooden signs were nailed to poles featuring "lost" animals - Mr. Jazzy, Killer, Sonny Boy, and Mr. Crazy. "A little guerrilla art in Chapel Hill," said Kate Flory, executive director of the Chapel Hill Public Arts Commission. "That's fun." Unfortunately, as the law now stands, IT'S ALSO ILLEGAL.

Local mom finds 'lost' art
Chapel Hill News
March 21, 2007
By Mark Schultz
Page 1

CHAPEL HILL -- Sandra Elliott has started collecting art.

But the Chapel Hill interior designer says she'll gladly put the art back where she found it if the artist wants her to.

Elliott was on Elliott Road about a month ago when she saw the first one: the word "Lost" and a crudely painted dog on a hand-sized piece of wood nailed to a utility pole.

Her son, Blake, yelled at her when she pried the piece of wood from the pole.

"Mom, you took the sign down," said Blake, 12. "What if somebody is trying to find their dog?"

"Well, there's no phone number," she replied. "And I don't think any dog looks like this."

The dog on the wooden board had five orange stripes down its back.

So far Elliott has collected four "Lost" signs looking for creatures named Mr. Crazy, Killer, Sonny Boy and Mr. Jazzy.

"I have not heard of this," said Kate Flory, executive director of the Chapel Hill Public Arts Commission. "A little guerilla art in Chapel Hill. That's fun."

In addition to Elliott Road, Elliott said she has found the signs on South Lakeshore Drive, old Erwin Road and Old Chapel Hill Road.

"It's become our hunt," Elliott said of her turns driving in Blake's school carpool.

But she doesn't want to keep the art if its creator didn't intend for people to take it.

"I'm enjoying this, but I don't want to look like I'm going around stealing things," she said.

Council keeps ban on utility pole flyers

Chapel Hill Herald
Friday November 15, 2002
BY RAY GRONBERG
Page 1

CHAPEL HILL - Despite the pleas of a Rosemary Street record store owner, the Town Council has decided to retain Chapel Hill's longtime ban on posting advertising flyers on utility poles.

A divided council voted 6-3 earlier this week to retain the ban. Members who favored retaining the ban said it's consistent with the town's desire to maintain a clean downtown.

"I'm looking for consistency," said Councilwoman Flicka Bateman, who noted that the next edition of Chapel Hill's land-use law might limit Duke Power's ability to install overhead utility wires.

Concern about aesthetics is driving that decision, so it makes no sense to "allow the cluttering of utility poles at eye level" at the same time, she said.

The three dissenters - Councilmen Ed Harrison, Mark Kleinschmidt and Bill Strom - wanted to repeal or significantly modify the ordinance.

Kleinschmidt and Strom argued that the presence of flyers on utility poles is a common feature of life in a college town.

"It boils down to a subjective aesthetic," Strom said. "A creosote-coated, pressure-treated piece of lumber with 9 million staples in it is aesthetically unappealing [too]."

The council opened debate on the flyer ban this spring, at the request of Erik Ose, the owner of Lost City Music & Video on West Rosemary Street.

Ose asked the council to consider repealing the ban after he received a ticket for attaching a flyer advertising a "banquet for global peace and justice" to a pole.

A police officer who saw Ose put up the flyer issued the ticket after the record store owner refused an order to take it down. The ticket eventually cost Ose $115.

Ose criticized the council's decision to retain the ban on flyers.

"Most people are flabbergasted to learn that this law exists to begin with," he said. "All we're asking is that they let people's posters stay up for a week at a time, which would save the town money, encourage low-cost marketing by locally owned businesses and grass-roots political expression, and preserve the sense of community that flyers and posters give our town. Would that be so terrible?"

Roughly 1,200 people signed a petition organized by Ose that favored repeal. But a key player - Duke Power - weighed in strongly against the proposal.

Duke officials argued that the heavy staples used to attach flyers cause wood to erode over time, and create safety hazards for workers who have to climb poles to maintain utility lines.

Duke, BellSouth and Time Warner Cable own most of the poles in town. The poles are private property, and some critics of the repeal proposal argued that it amounted to the legalization of trespassing.

Ose saw it differently. "I'd like to think that the voices and wishes of the community speak louder than a big corporation when it comes to deciding town issues," he said.

Meanwhile, Mayor Kevin Foy noted that the town is in the process of rendering the debate moot. It's already asked Duke to replace the wooden poles now in place along North Columbia Street and the 100 block of East Franklin Street with metal fixtures that jibe with the requirements of Chapel Hill's Streetscape program.

Monday's vote also ordered Town Manager Cal Horton and his staff to look for additional places to install the four-sided flier kiosks that are part of the Streetscape program.

Posts on poles may be allowed

The Chapel Hill News
June 26, 2002
News in Review
Page A2

By the end of the year, utility poles around Chapel Hill may be sporting legal flyers and posters.

On Monday, the Chapel Hill Town Council backed a request by Erik Ose, a local activist and businessman, to allow signs on utility poles, a practice that is now banned.

Duke Power opposed the change in policy, citing nails and staples for causing "a degradation of the integrity of the wood" and making it less safe for crews to climb the poles and repair lines.

Council member Pat Evans opposed the signs for safety reasons, as well as aesthetics.

"There will be signs that spring up addressing every major issue and commercial venture," Evans said. "Allowing all kinds of signs to be posted in all corners of the community is the wrong direction to take."

But the majority of the council disagreed.

"I don't think there is going to be a crisis of posting around town," council member Mark Kleinschmidt responded.

The council voted 6-3, with Evans, Jim Ward and Flicka Bateman dissenting, to ask the town attorney to bring back ideas on how to change the ordinance in the fall.

If the ordinance changes, Public Works staff members would take the signs down at regular intervals in much the way they clean up the town-owned kiosks.