NEILLSVILLE COUNCIL SAYS 'NO' TO SKATEPARK ADVERTISING
Wednesday, December 14th, 2005 -- 12:16 PM
The Neillsville City Council decided Tuesday night no advertising will be allowed at the Neillsville Skatepark. The council also passed a motion stating that ?no further advertising will be allowed on city property without prior approval of the city council?.Addressing a controversy that brewed when Clark County Right to Life approached the city about putting a pro-abstinence sign at the Skatepark, the council decided city property is not the proper place for advertising, according to Neillsville Mayor Diane Murphy.
As part of a fundraiser, the private Skatepark Committee told area businesses and service groups donations over $500 would be recognized with a sign at the Skatepark.
Currently, about 20 area businesses have qualified and around fourteen 2? X 4? signs hang on the west fence of the park, located on highway 10 near A & W.
To date, businesses contributed around $35,000 to the park. The facility was donated back to the City in October of 2004.
But City Attorney Bonnie Wacsmuth told the Council, if they allowed advertising, they couldn?t discriminate against any group willing to pay the fee.
The council decided only to allow ?recognition signs?. The current signs will have to be altered - or completely remade ? to take out information about services offered and even phone numbers. Recognition signs may only have the group?s name and their official logo, Wacsmuth advised.
"We gave the Skatepark Committee until the first meeting in January to bring in proposed changes," Murphy says. "They can stay up, but they can't have any advertising."
All sides seem to agree that the council?s action was probably necessary, but the controversy was unfortunate.
Murphy says the debate was less about Clark County Right to Life, and more about other groups that might demand advertising space. She said the public comments she received were overwhelmingly opposed to advertising on city property.
"If you set a fee and let people buy advertising space, you have no control over what they want to put up and we have to have control," Murphy said. "The city parks aren't for advertising, they're for the enjoyment of the people."
Clark County Right to Life President Renee Schoen tells WCCN that she understands the city?s actions. She is not sure if her group will pay $500 for a recognition sign, acknowledging the opportunity to display the pro-abstinence message was the main reason they sought to have a sign placed at the park.
Marcia Gross of the Neillsville Skatepark Committee says they will be contacting the businesses whose signs are impacted by the city?s action. She doesn?t anticipate many problems with bringing the signs into compliance as the lettering can be altered without destroying the rest of the sign; however, some will have to be completely redone.
The signs cost about $88 a piece.
She says the fundraising effort began before the park was donated back to the city, so her group didn?t consider it necessary to approach the Council about the advertising.
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