Fairway Outdoor Advertising has not removed two of the four billboards it agreed to take down as part of a legal settlement with Oconee County that allowed the sign company to erect the two huge LED signs on Epps Bridge Parkway.
One of the four signs slated for removal–at the intersection of Ruth Jackson Road and U.S. 78–won’t come down until Fairway has completed its contracts for signs at the site, according to county officials.
The other–on U.S. 441 just east of Hog Mountain Road–won’t come down until Fairway has a permit for the sign it is allowed to erect in Butler’s Crossing as part of the legal settlement with the county, Oconee County Code Enforcement Director B.R. White said early last week.
Those big signs on Epps Bridge Parkway got the attention of Allen Skinner, chief appraiser for the county. On Jan. 1 he started including the estimated income from the signs in the value of property on which the signs sit.
As a result, landowners for the 31 billboards Skinner and his staff have counted in the county are being required to pay additional property tax to reflect the values of the leases the landowners sign with the billboard companies.
For more on this story, go to Oconee County Observations.