Sign remover apologizes

Dr. Ralph Patterson said he viewed the signs as simply picking up litter along a road.

When Dr. Ralph Patterson took two campaign signs along Arkansas Highway 340 at Cooper Road, he didn’t believe what he did was wrong.

Now, he understands his mistake in taking the two “Vote No” signs, he wrote in a message to The Weekly Vista.

Patterson was arrested Aug. 22 and charged with a class A misdemeanor, punishable by up to a year in jail and up to a $2,500 fine. In Arkansas, a class A misdemeanor is the highest classification of misdemeanor, one step below felony classifications. His court date is Sept. 21 at Bentonville District Court.

Patterson has been involved and volunteered with the Property Owners Association for a significant portion of the more than a decade he’s lived here.

“My action in this instance was not just a once-in-a-lifetime

thing,” he said. “I’m a person who believes in what’s right and trying to make things right.”

While Patterson is in support of the POA assessment increase, he said he would prefer not to see any signs alongside roads. The signs, he said, are doing little to spur discussion, and they’re mostly an eyesore.

“I would love to see an ordinance,” he said, “that doesn’t let you post a political sign anywhere but your own yard.”

Patterson wrote in his email that his thinking at the time was that removing the signs seemed similar to picking up trash on the side of the road.

Patterson said that he thought the signs were against city code — one was located inside the “sight triangle” and, as a result, obstructing views around the corner. The other, he said, was too close to the road. As a result of these apparent violations, Patterson said, he believed the signs needed to be removed.

Additionally, Patterson wrote, the signs didn’t have the name, address and phone number of their owner, as required by city code. The signs’ owner, Jim Parsons, asserts that information was present. That can’t be determined because Patterson placed the signs in the trash.

Parsons, who saw a person take the signs, got a vehicle description and partial license plate number. He reported the incident to the police.

After speaking with police about the incident, Patterson wrote, he was informed that removing the signs was unlawful, and that any code violations he — or anyone else — sees should be reported to the city so that a code enforcement officer can investigate.

Patterson wrote that he now understands what he did was wrong, and that he’d like to apologize to the residents of Bella Vista and ask Parsons for his forgiveness.

“It’s just one of those things,” he said. “It didn’t matter if I was right or not, I shouldn’t have done it.”