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Show Billboard Blight Menaces Federal Highway System The new federal highway system sys-tem will become a 41,000 mile "billboard slum" unless the state legislatures act quickly. Nearly 4,000 miles of the interstate inter-state system have been completed com-pleted so far at a cost of about a million dollars a mile, and much of the brand new highway has been taken over by the bill board, according to the article, "The Great Billboard Scandal of 1960," by Charles Stevenson in Reader's Digest. More than 50 signs were counted count-ed on 15 miles of Interstate 35 between Olathe and Kansas City. In California, the number of rural signs has doubled in the decade, desecrating some of the world's loveliest scenery. Even before New York state Route 17 through the Catskills was open a few years ago, workmen were erecting billboard frames along side it, and cutting down state trees to make sure the signs will be visible. Under existing federal law, the government will pay states a bonus of one half of one per cent of the cost of the highways affected, af-fected, if they pass laws allowing no more than two signs per mile within 660 feet of the road. A state must qualify by June 30, 1961, or it cannot collect. So far, only Maryland, Wisconsin, No. Dakota and Connecticut have qualified. The Sacramento Bee reported that a state signboard control was detained in committee to give a billboard lobbyist time to write an amendment. Ohio has passed a tough law in 1958. Last year it was up for minor changes to qualify for the federal bonus; instead a repealer emerged. Iti was vetoed by Gov. DiSalle. In Virginia, the Highway Advertisers Advertis-ers Association urged farmers to a battle against mile control legislation. leg-islation. However, citizens of Maryland have shown how to fight the billboards and win. When a bill was introduced in 1958, garden clubs set up a "telephone chain" which alerted 4,000 members in an hour. Letters poured into the legislature, women hurried to the capital and called on legislators. legisla-tors. Each time a vote was taken this process was repeated. The result: Maryland has one of the strongest billboard control laws in the nation. This process can be repeated in any state afflicted with billboard blight. |
