Address Signs Getting Costlier

Residents in Fayette County needing a 911 address sign will have to pay a little extra.

Fayette County Commissioners voted to increase to cost of the blue 911 address signs from $10 to $20 at their meeting last Thursday, Jan. 27.

“The aluminum has gotten really expensive,” said Fayette County Airport Manager Debra Maddox, who handles signmaking duties for the County.

Maddox also prints the named county road signs for the commissioners. The cost of those signs is also going up.

Pct. 3 Commissioner Harvey Berckenhoff said some County road signs get stolen multiple times over the course of a year. He said former Pct. 4 Commissioner Tom Muras once determined that Baseball Diamond Loop in the Ammannsville area was stolen 50 times in one year.

Pct. 1 Commissioner Jason McBroom said the County gets a grant each year to cover the cost of road name signs, but the grant doesn’t include the cost of the post or traffic devices such as stop or yield signs.

“It takes one or two guys to fix, especially when they ripped the post out and you have to throw that thing away and you have to put it back in,” Berckenhoff said. “It’s time consuming to do that.”

When a developer builds a new roads for a subdivision, the roads must be built to county specifications and eventually be dedicated to the public. The developers also pay a $150 fee for each signpost, which includes the post, two road signs and any required traffic devices.. Commissioners decided to increase to $200 at Thursday’s meeting.