Now is the time when a lot of homes will host yard sales and garage sales, getting rid of old and unused items around the house, perhaps to make room for more things received at Christmas.

People putting on yard sales will go around putting up signs at places where they are most likely to get noticed: street corners, telephone poles and other busy areas. The problem is: they often forget to take those signs down or post them in places where they shouldn’t.

That is the problem faced by Mike Baker, the public works superintendent for the City of Demopolis. He has gathered several signs for yard sales and garage sales that were posted illegally or were not taken down in compliance with the city yard sale ordinance.

The yard sale and garage sale ordinances are listed in Section 603 of the city code, and it spells out what people putting on yard sales or garage sales need to do.

“All we’re asking is that they abide by the ordinance, which a lot of people may not know,” Baker said. “I made a list of the addresses of the signs I collected. If there is a second violation, I may have to cite them, and I don’t want to cite people for yard sale signs. Taking care of them is only the proper, polite thing to do. They just need to go out and pick them up when the yard sale is through.”

The ordinances regarding yard sale signs are part of the sign ordinance found in Section 904. Baker said most of the yard sale sign violations were found on the edge of the road, which is the city’s right-of-way. Other violations found included signs from yard sales long past, some from the month of August.

“I don’t want to make an example of anyone by citing them,” Baker said. “We’re just trying to get them under control and asking people to follow the ordinance.”

For more information about yard sale signs or the sign ordinance, contact Baker at 289-3879.