Code officer’s sign purge raises hackles

A couple weeks ago, there were suddenly a lot fewer signs along the roads in the town of Shandaken.

No one knew where they went. Some had been up for years, others only weeks, but many were gone. At the same time, a number of signs remained.

Concerned, some sign owners, like Highmount resident Beverly Rainone, called the police to report the theft, only to learn that the culprit was actually the town’s code enforcement officer.

At a Town Board meeting last week, Rainone and others complained, but got little satisfaction.

Rainone told the board that her sign on her land — one that read “Save The Mountain” in protest of the proposed Belleayre Resort at Catskill Park — disappeared. At the same time, a similar protest sign of hers on state Route 28 across from the Emerson Marketplace in Mount Tremper, on the property of Edna Hoyt, vanished too, so she called the police.

“A couple of days later I learned that (Code Enforcement Officer) Warren Tutt had come to my property, climbed up my billboard and removed my sign,” she said. “On Edna Hoyt’s property, he unscrewed the sign, removed part of the framework and took the sign.”

Phoenicia-based Realtor Ric Ricciardella told the board he had three signs taken.

“They cost two hundred bucks apiece,” he said.

Dave Channon, a town assessor and promoter of the popular Shandaken Art Studio Tour, which is slated for several locations in town this weekend, said that he was mystified when all of the promotional signs vanished into thin air.

“If somebody had told me what was going on, it would have saved me a lot of grief,” he said.

Phoenicia resident Kathy Nolan, speaking in support of Rainone, said Tutt’s purge appeared to be discriminatory because some signs have been allowed to remain.

“This was selective enforcement and harmful,” she said. “People called the police . ... Without being backed by town law, it probably was theft.”

Board members, including Councilman Tim Malloy, said Tutt handled things poorly.

“The problem is what’s he doing on people’s property and taking them?” he asked. “Why doesn’t he just call them, or get a hold of them?”

When Rainone asked what would happen if she put signs back up, town Supervisor Rob Stanley said the Town Board had nothing to do with it.

“That’s something you should take up with Warren,” he said.

It was noted that the signs removed by Tutt are at Shandaken Town Hall on Route 28 in Allaben. Anyone missing a sign should contact the Code Enforcement Office at (845) 688-5008.