| Submit your comments on this article |
| Fifth Column |
| Chapel Hill bitches about God Bless America sign |
| 2001-09-18 |
CHAPEL HILL -- Zoning inspectors made a Franklin Street restaurant take down a banner proclaiming "God Bless America, Woe to Our Enemies" after it spurred complaints from a citizen and at least three Town Council members. The weekend action against Top of the Hill restaurant invoked a provision of Chapel Hill's sign ordinance that allows downtown business to post temporary placards only if they measure 6 square feet or less. Top of the Hill's banner exceeded the size limit, Town Manager Cal Horton and Inspections Director Lance Norris said. Horton added that administrators weren't trying to suppress the banner's message, which they assume expressed the reaction of Top of the Hill's owner, Scott Maitland, to last Tuesday's terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, D.C. "We don't care what the message is," Horton said. "What we were regulating was the size. A sign of 6 square feet or less would not be a violation of the ordinance, therefore we would not have issue with it." But the Town Council members involved did object to the banner's message and were urging Mayor Rosemary Waldorf to relay their sentiments to Maitland even as administrators made their ruling Friday. |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |