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John Smiley said he was tired of seeing Donald Trump campaign signs on Route 30 more than three months after the presidential election.
“I'm just so annoyed. I counted 16 of them,” said Smiley of New Stanton. “I don't remember it being like this for other elections.”
Smiley conceded he supported Hillary Clinton in the November election. But he's no fan of any political signs remaining after elections.
“I even tried to get them down myself. I got a stepladder, but they were fastened to a pole,” he said. “I don't think they should be up for the next four years.”
As candidates start to campaign for the May primaries, political signs from last year's presidential race remain in some front yards and on roadways with no requirement for their removal.
“It's free speech. We don't regulate political signs,” Hempfield Supervisor Doug Weimer said. “They're allowed to be up year round on private property.”
Some municipal officials said Monday that while they'd like political signs to be removed after an election, there's nothing on the books to assure they are.
Attorney Scott Avolio, who is solicitor for several municipalities in the county, said political sign regulations are rare.
None of the municipalities he represents — they include Hempfield, Penn Township, Jeannette and Ligonier Township — require that campaign signs be removed from private property post-election.
“Laws restricting them are not routine. There has been no recent enforcement that I know of,” Avolio said.
Michael Korns, chairman of the Westmoreland County Republican Committee, said the party encourages local candidates to take down signs within days after an election. But it's tougher to regulate the removal of signs for statewide and national candidates who rely on local party officials to circulate them, Korns said.
Korns, a lawyer in Avolio's office, conceded that a number of Trump signs remain in yards, along roads and affixed to utility poles.
“This year, the Trump issue is more challenging than in a lot of other years. More people were putting up signs not from our committee,” he said. “The Trump campaign was sort of different and wonderful. It was decentralized. More signs were put up by private citizens who bought them or got them from other sources.”
Democratic party officials could not be reached for comment.
Roadside signs are prohibited from obstructing motorists' view, and only then can a property owner be forced to remove them, Unity Supervisor John Mylant said.
Aside from signs on a township or state right of way, there's no requirement that they be removed, he said.
“We can't do anything about them,” Mylant said.
He said the township has received complaints about a 14-foot metal likeness of Trump that stands outside a house in Youngstown that was painted red, white and blue and served as a headquarters for his supporters. In September, about 14,000 people visited the house, according to owner Leslie Baum Rossi.
Police said a Ligonier woman and two others were injured in October when a car pulling out of the Trump House driveway was struck by a vehicle on Route 982.
“Our solicitor is looking into it,” Mylant said about the legality of the Trump image, which appears to be on private property.
State law prohibits unauthorized signs on PennDOT property, according to agency spokesman Rich Kirkpatrick.
“But we are not an enforcement agency. We will remove signs that pose a safety hazard. But, beyond that, routine sign removal hinges on whether our crews don't have other pending maintenance work that takes priority,” Kirkpatrick wrote in an email.
Korns said it's a bad reflection on candidates to have signs linger.
“If we didn't put them up, we don't know where they are,” he said. “If anyone sees a sign, let us know and we'll get them down.”
Rich Cholodofsky is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at 724-830-6293 or rcholodofsky@tribweb.com.
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