Lobster Trap
A candidate for the Portland City Council found a unique way to display his campaign signs around town, but now the city has taken his lobster trap signs down.Instead of your typical wooden stake, Bill Linnell mounted his signs on lobster traps.But the city clerk notified Linnell that the signs are illegal because they can create a public safety and maintenance problem on public right of ways. “What we don’t want to get into is a case of one-upmanship, where somebody puts signs on lobster traps, so somebody else puts theirs on an inflatable cow. There’s a safety factor out there,” said MDOT Safety Engineer Steve Landry. Linnell said he had no intention of taking the signs down. He also says he may take the city to court, but if he does, it won’t happen until after the election. “The only real restriction they cite is 50 square feet is the limit of your sign, and my lobster traps, if you measure all six sides, you don’t come anywhere close to 50 square feet. So to me there is no regulation that prohibits the lobster traps,” said Linnell. The State Department of Transportation says there are clear guidelines about what is appropriate and safe for campaign signs. Linnell says he doesn’t want this to be his number one campaign issue. He has put up different signs to replace the lobster traps, and has hung buoys on some of them. He says his point is to raise awareness of the importance of the city’s working waterfront.