Staff Reports

Leesburg – It remains to be seen of independent candidate Tim Nelson will defeat republican incumbent Rick Muggridge for his seat on the Lee County Commission in November.  That will be for the voters of district four to decide.  However, Nelson has already won a victory when the Lee County Commission voted to amend their sign ordinance after a controversy regarding pro T-SPLOST signs in the county.

The signs had a changing display and violated the county’s sign ordinance, a fact Nelson made clear to them almost immediately after they appeared.  Nelson copied the Journal on emails to county code enforcement officials that he sent repeatedly, usually quoting the ordinance for county officials.

Each time, the email fell on deaf ears as the county allowed the signs to remain.

At last night’s county commission meeting, Nelson called them on it.  Lee County attorney Jimmy Skipper said, “Political signs are not defined as temporary signs under the ordinance because under the ordinance, temporary signs have a time limitation and under the Supreme Court of Georgia’s decisions, we can’t have a time limitation with a respect to political signs.”

Many T-SPLOST opponents found it odd that the signs in question, which changed every 10 seconds, were permitted despite multiple ways in which the signs were illegal.  County officials claimed repeatedly that it was illegal for them to regulate political signs, though the law they referred to only points out that you can not limited the size or number of signs.