Weekly News Column Opinion and Laughs on The Record

A Sign of the Times

Jeff Borgardt's Soundoff from Summit Column 10/16/05

  It all started when I was walking into the office Tuesday morning.
    As I crossed the corner next to the library at 62nd and Archer, two large Illinois Department of Transportation trucks pulled up. One guy grabbed a wrench and walked toward two posted signs. One sign reads “one way” and the other steers motorists to the New
Hope Baptist Church down the street at 7240 W. 62nd. I saw the workers were going to remove a sign and figured it was the traffic sign.
    “So, they changed this street from one-way and you are taking down the sign,” I asked the worker smelling a news story.
    He nodded and then started to remove the Baptist church sign.
The church sign looks like a traffic sign, only it has an image of the church and an arrow.
    I told him that I had heard good things about that church and asked why he was removing the sign which has been there for years and years.
    The worker said the sign is not allowed.
“How come?” I asked.
    He said church signs are not allowed on state roads.
    I looked kind of puzzled and then he explained “we don’t hate churches and go around taking down church signs. We are just following orders.”
    Once I got into the newsroom, I called IDOT and spoke with press spokesman Matt Vanover.
    “We do not allow advertisements like that. Whether it is a church, library or school, if we were to allow one, we’d have to allow others and there would be too much clutter and people would disregard all the traffic signs.”
    The sign is now stored at the IDOT ‘south side sign shop’ which is a facility that people should not try to name aloud five times quickly lest they become tongue-tied (south side sign shop south side sign shop south side sign shop).
    The church may go to the south side sign shop and claim the sign if they want, Vanover said.
    “Removing signs like this is not a high priority,” Vanover said. “A crew driving around doing other work must have noticed it and picked it up.”
    I asked Vanover what he would say to church members who may miss their lovely sign.
    “There are hundreds of schools, churches and meeting halls. If we were to allow everyone to have a sign then no-one would pay attention to any of the traffic signs.”
    Next I called the New Hope Baptist Church to see what they have to say about all this.
    Pastor John Hernandez questioned if the road area belongs to Summit or the state but said there is really nothing that can be done once the state gets involved.
    “They should be more concerned with potholes than church signs,” Hernandez said. “That sign has been there ten years. Why are they concerned about a church sign?”
    I told Hernandez about my discussion with the IDOT workers Tuesday morning.
    “Well, I’m glad someone stuck up for us. Most of our traffic comes from Harlem and not Archer, but yea, that sign has been there for about 10 years so I don’t see why they need to take it down.”