Banner Policy Launch Eyed For Spring by Mendham Boro

By spring, organizations wishing to promote their events via banner on Main Street in Mendham Borough should be able to do so again.

At Monday night’s meeting of the mayor and council, council president John Andrus said that after working on the issue with the sub committee, the group was close to presenting a policy on banner use.

“We have been working on the banner portion of the sign policy. As you know, we left the banners out of the sign ordinance,” Andrus said. “I think we’ve moved a giant step forward in terms of where we were.”

Over the summer, Councilman David Sharkey and his subcommittee said they were targeting their August meeting to present the ordinance, which was introduced officially on September and adopted in October.

A hurdle was presented to the council when businessman Bob Diffin brought up the issue of banners being used to promote local organizations, and afterwards, Mendham Borough Mayor Neil Henry encouraged the public and those interested to get involved and share their opinion.

Originally the amended ordinance prohibited the use of banners on Main Street that were used to promote local organizations and events. That caused blowback from the community and business owners. The controversy over the removal of the banners caused the council to reconsider the position of banning them.

"After receiving much feedback, the ordinance does allow for the placement of banners," Henry said at the time. “Its been included in the ordinance and the policy for banners will be assigned to the sub committee. ”

That subcommittee, according to Andrus, is finalizing a few details, like the location of the banner.

“Rather than have the location be by the shopping center where we thought it might be, we are talking about moving it back toward the center of town where it has historically been,” Andrus said.

The mechanics of banner usage are still being finalized, Andrus said.

“We’ve worked out a limit and a list of priority and the amount of time the banner can fly for a particular event,” Andrus said. “With one or two relatively minor items to be decided we can come back with a recommendation.”

According to Henry, the banner policy should see action in spring 2013.  

“I think we were talking an April sort of launch date,” Henry said.