City sends out letters about aging signs

By Zsombor Peter
Staff Writer

GALLUP — Charlie Chavez, owner of Virgie's Caf on the west end of town, still gets teased by customers and friends about the colorful multi-story sign out front with the big yellow arrow pointing to his restaurant, ever since the city took notice of the paint chipping off it five weeks ago.

It started at the April 26 City Council meeting at which city officials named Virgie's and 11 other businesses around town as potential candidates for a new plan to get the owners to fix their dilapidating signs using a new urban blight ordinance. Passed last year, the ordinance requires business owners to keep their commercial signs in good condition, or repay the city for the work of restoring them.

Chavez took exception to being included among the dozen examples without being notified first. At the next council meeting, he accused the city of failing to maintain some of its own facilities, and got into a short shouting match with Councilman Pat Butler.

Since then, the city has sent out its first wave of letters to 34 businesses, mostly along Highway 66 impressing on the owners the advantages of fixing their signs on their own.

Among the businesses on the list was Virgie's.

Chavez said he's received his letter, and has already started working on his sign, which only started chipping after the latest winter weather.

Chavez didn't mind the jokes, he said, "because everyone who knows me knew I was going to do something about my sign."

He doesn't mind fixing the sign, he said, which could cost between $200 and $2,000 depending on whether he'll need to rent a sky jack to finish the work. He'll also have to fix the neon lights now, which the wobbly scaffolding used for the paint job knocked out.

What he did mind was being made an example of.

"It's embarrassing when they use you as an example and they don't tell you about it," he said. "It's the power of embarrassment; that's what I call it."

Councilors insisted they had no intention of embarrassing Chavez or singling him out.

The whole point of the initiative, said the man behind the plan, City Manager Eric Honeyfield, is to help the business community. Dilapidating signs, he argues, give the impression of a dying community, a community where entrepreneurs and tourists won't want to come to spend their money.

The letter takes a soft approach with the business owners, encouraging them to see things the city's way.

"The compliance of freestanding signage is essential to further the efforts of a positive public image that not only enhances favorable impressions on visitors, but also enriches the community quality of life for those living here," it reads.

"The new ordinance pertaining to improvement, preservation and enhancement of the City of Gallup is not intended to deprive the affected property owners of their beneficial use of their property, but rather to minimize negative public image and implement measures to protect the (health), safety and welfare of the owners and residents within and adjacent to unmaintained signs."

Although each letter went out with a complete copy of the new ordinance, it doesn't mention that the city can put a lien on the business, do the work itself, and present the owner with a bill.

Honeyfield said he hoped to win the owners over without emphasizing that option.

City Planner Lisa Baca Diaz, in charge of getting the letters out, said she's heard of no complaints from the owners she's spoken with, or any reports of complaints from her staff.

Honeyfield said he's only heard from Chavez so far.

"I'm still not happy," Chavez said, "but I'm going to get my sign done."

And he's still upset with the city for leaning on the business community when city facilities are still out of compliance with local landscape standards.

"If they want businesses to get their stuff done, they ought to lead by example," he said.

Honeyfield has acknowledged the city's lapses here and there and said that crews are on the job.

According to Baca Diaz, these 34 letters were just the first batch. She said city staff will begin surveying the signs along Gallup's other main thoroughfares soon.