Some billboard companies that might have tried to beat the new billboard regulation law are complaining because they’ve been caught and a top official at the Transportation Department suggests they might be playing politics. The state’s new billboard law went into effect August 28th. It establishes new, longer distances between signs, among other things. But, some companies got permits under the old law, right up to the day the new law went into effect and they have spent thousands of dollars building new signs. The Transportation Department has told them their signs don’t comply with the new law and have to come down. The head of the Transportation Department’s right-of-way section says the law says any sign completed before August 28th is okay but the new law requires any new signs to carry messages and the ones targeted violate the new law. Duane Gaddy says the complainers are talking to the wrong people.
