Well everyone, stay tuned for more selective enforcement coming to your neighborhood. Halloween is here and the "tombstones" are back on Mill Road.Centerville City Hall likes to refer to them as "signs" but we believe they are more like Halloween decorations - considering they are only on the lawn during the month of Halloween. Of course, if these are considered "signs" the city can tell you how many you can have on your lawn, but decorations are another thing... I wonder which media outlets will enjoy the coverage this year?
Unfortunately this has been an issue for years. If someone complains, your decorations conveniently become signs which coincidentally is an ordinance violation. Headless bloody corpses are far more tasteful, right? Does government have the right to legislate taste?
Racy Tombstones Replaced by Others
Eyewitness News
10/28/2005
Halloween tombstones offend neighbors (Oct. 25) Although a Centerville woman has agreed to remove several suggestive Halloween tombstones, the controversy is far from over. The tombstones each have names that double as puns, such as I.P. Freely and Ben Dover. Some of the names, however, are offensive to Heather Pranke’s neighbors and some passers by. Pranke agreed to remove three of the most offensive tombstones, but those are being replaced by six more.
As Pranke was installing the additional signs, a driver yelled out “They’re disgusting!” Robert Nelson, her neighbor two doors down, thinks the humor is not appropriate for such a public display. “Some things are better for a bar than a front yard,” said Nelson. “There were some that rhyme with duck.” Pranke hopes her neighbors are less offended with the new signs, which include such names as ‘Mia Butreaks’ and ‘Ilene Dover.’ “I just want everyone to enjoy my sense of humor as much as I do,” says Pranke.
