Loans could help owners if portable signs outlawed

By Liz McMahan
Phoenix Staff Writer

September 19, 2006 01:30 am

— Muskogee city and Chamber of Commerce officials are taking seriously the words of tourism development expert Roger Brooks.
He said during a visit in May that he had never seen a community with more portable signs than Muskogee.
And that was not a good thing.
“Temporary signs are used by businesses desperate to pull visitors in, but could be achieved just as well through beautification, permanent signs and facade improvements. These are the ‘cheap way out’,” Brooks wrote in his report to the Greater Muskogee Area Chamber of Commerce and Tourism.
Mayor Wren Stratton said the sign issue is one she will address in her “State of the City” address Sept. 28.
The City Council likely will take up the issue of banning portable signs in the next few weeks, Stratton said.
If the signs are outlawed, there could be special financing available through local banks to help businesses get better, permanent signs, said David Jones, chairman of Muskogee Development and president of Bank of Oklahoma in Muskogee.
Several local banks offered a preferential rate to businesses several years ago when there was a push to improve their storefronts, Jones said.
“If the City Council decides they’ve got to do something — if they outlaw the temporary signs — then I think they’re going to come to us and ask for special financing for signage and we’ll get together and do it,” Jones said.
Treasure Ruttman, tourism director for the chamber, said micro loans have been a solution for businesses in other towns where portable signs have been banned.
In some of those instances, the loans have been paid back at the same rate as the portable sign rent. If they were paying $50 per month to rent a sign, they paid $50 per month on the note on their new, permanent sign, Ruttman said.
Jones, who also serves on the council, said he is leaning toward voting against allowing portable signs.
“I’ve been taking a survey almost everywhere I go anymore when I’m with a group of people and there’s probably at least 95 percent or better who want to do away with temporary signs,” Jones said. “They think Muskogee would look a whole lot better.”
Besides the portable sign issue, Muskogee will begin addressing another criticism Brooks had for the city: Dilapidated signs, Stratton said.
“Instead of going out and just abating them, we will be offering to take them down for them,” Stratton said.
“If they choose to take them down themselves, then they enter an abatement, where they have X number of days to remove them.”

Reach Liz McMahan at 684-2926 or lmcmahan@muskogeephoenix.com.

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