STARKVILLE — Every day as residents and visitors alike drive up and down Highway 12, a large sign from local business Strange Brew Coffeehouse displays short expressions or idioms.
Most are congratulatory or generally funny. Others poke fun at a visiting opponent for a Mississippi State sports team.
Come next week, that all will change.
Due to an ordinance first approved more than a decade ago, signs such as the notorious one at Strange Brew will no longer be positioned high in the air, with all pole signs in the city having to be removed by a May 5 deadline. The only signs that will be allowed on Highway 12, as well as other parts of the city like Highway 182, will be monument signs — ground signs supported totally by a solid base of masonry, brick or other material that can only be eight feet tall.
Although Strange Brew owner Shane Reed has voiced adamant disapproval to aldermen and on social media for removing his sign to the Starkville Board of Aldermen, the board voted in October that the ordinance will have no exceptions.
The city passed the ordinance in 2011, setting a May 5, 2022, deadline for compliance. In October, Mayor Lynn Spruill sent letters to about 75 businesses still out of compliance. Neither she nor City Planner Daniel Havelin provided an exact number by press time for how many pole signs are still up, but they noted most that were in the city have been removed.
Strange Brew’s sign was constructed in the 1990s when Reed’s parents first opened the businesses as a gas station. He said it has been a unique outlet that has brought the community together and hopefully brightened people’s days, acting as social media before social media existed.
“Over the years we’ve celebrated milestones in (Mississippi State University) and Starkville history, given voices to small clubs from campus, built relationships with other schools and rivals and even helped people propose to significant others more than once,” Reed said.
While Reed and some local customers do not agree with taking down the sign, aldermen voted to leave the ordinance in place because several other businesses have complied.
The original policy called for businesses not in compliance by the deadline to be fined up to a maximum amount of $1,000 per day until the pole sign was removed, but after Board Attorney Chris Latimer researched the legality of the matter, the board voted to refer non-complying businesses to municipal court.
Spruill said businesses that still have pole signs will be sent a letter and given 30 more days to remove the sign. If a business doesn’t comply with the letter, the owner will be summoned to court where the municipal judge will decide the case.
“We’re identifying the business with a picture and a letter, which will say you have 30 days to get your sign down or you will be issued a summons,” Spruill said.
Due to this policy and being forced to “waste money” on taking his sign down, Reed said he has decided not to open any more businesses in the city.
“I always wanted to open a new dine-in movie theater, an entertainment center with a putt-putt course and some other businesses, but unfortunately that won’t happen here,” Reed said. “We’ll choose elsewhere.”
Other business owners are trying to make the best of the new rule.
Rosey Baby owner Ashley Ray applied for a variance to put a new sign on the wall of her restaurant. Due to the restaurant being too close to the street and not having the space for a monument sign, she received approval from the aldermen to put a backlit, color-changing logo and crawfish sign on the side of her building.
She said has already taken down the signs to her family’s other businesses in town, Brewski’s and Marathon “Coconuts in the Grove” gas station. Rosey Baby’s sign will be replaced next week.
While Ray said she feels confident her business will not struggle without a pole sign, she is interested to see how the ordinance will affect the rest of the city, citing that visitors and MSU fans who come in for sporting events will have to rely heavily on using the internet to find restaurants and other businesses.
“I think we have established such a name that (business) shouldn’t be an issue,” Ray said. “… The extra cost is not that fun for getting the signs taken down and replacing them, but if that’s what we have to do to comply with the ordinance, that’s what we will do.”
Dave Hood, owner of Dave’s Dark Horse Tavern on Highway 182, said his sign will be taken down next month. He, along with Ray, said that finding contractors to conduct this removal has not been difficult.
Hood previously expressed his concern about the ordinance’s rules to the board in December, saying he would have to share his allowed monument sign with next-door business Red Roof Inn, but he told The Dispatch on Monday he believes the ordinance will ultimately beautify the city.
“I’m not anti-ordinance,” Hood said. “I see the logic, and I do think the city will be more attractive eventually. I really don’t think not having a (pole) sign is going to hurt my business. I’ve been open for 27 years. I’m hoping to be open for another 27 years.”
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Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 37 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
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