Ghost tour signs haunting competition

[Carol]

By MEG BERNHARDT
Evening Sun Reporter


The owner of a ghost tour company in Gettysburg says her business is suffering because she obeys the borough's sign ordinance while other tour companies disregard it.

All along Baltimore Street and Steinwehr Avenue, Cindy Codori Schultz, the owner of Sleepy Hollow of Gettysburg, sees sandwich board signs bombarding potential customers before they ever get to her shop.

Some are too large, some are out after the close of business, others aren't located where the business is located, said Sleepy Hollow employee Edward Kenney. But they violate the ordinance in one way or another.

Kenney and Schultz have been asking for stricter enforcement since July.

The Gettysburg Borough Public Safety Committee members told them at a meeting Monday the borough will start citing violators soon. Borough staff will send out a letter warning businesses they are violating the ordinance first.

But it should be simpler, said committee Chairwoman Holly Giles.

"I can't understand why, in our nice little town, why we can't look at some guy and say 'You need to fix this and if you don't, this is what happens,'" Giles said. "We're understaffed and overworked, but if this were my business, I'd be furious."

The problem could lie with the ordinance.

Joe Svella came to the meeting to represent Ghostly Images of Gettysburg. He said his business complies with all borough regulations, both the voluntary guidelines and sign ordinances.

It turns out, that's up for debate. Ghostly Images is owned by Gettysburg Battlefield Tours, a company with properties all over the borough. At these locations, Gettysburg Battlefield Tours sells tickets for Ghostly Images, and has signs outside advertising the ghost tours.

Kenney said that's in violation, because the tours don't actually leave from the site. The sign ordinance bans businesses from advertising for a business that's not carried on or in the property where the sign is.

Svella said Ghostly Images conducts business there by selling tickets. But Schultz, who said she's been asked to remove signs at businesses where she's simply selling tickets, believes it violates the ordinance.

Borough staff said the clause in the ordinance was originally intended to prevent businesses located out-of-town from putting large advertising signs and billboards in town. But it's more complicated when businesses like ghost tours or the annual re-enactments sell tickets in town and display signs there.

The mayor has also heard complaints about yard sale signs advertising a sale up the block. Technically, those are illegal, because the ordinance says signs must be placed on the premises at the business.

It's something the committee will have to consider sometime later this year, Giles said. She wants the language to be more clear, so the borough staff will know what to enforce and businesses like Sleepy Hollow will be on a level playing field with other ghost tours.

And it will likely be part of a larger effort to write ordinances regulating walking tours in town, Giles said. In the past, ghost tours have been regulated by the sign ordinance and other business-oriented ordinances, but not ordinances specifically geared toward walking tours.

This year, safety concerns have been raised by property owners asking about noisy tours that trespass on doorsteps and produce trash. The committee is also concerned about whether companies have insurance and if pedestrians following dim candlelight are safe on the streets.

The committee has asked for voluntary compliance with a few guidelines in the past, but Giles said Monday it will probably have to create an ordinance after all, if only to make sure tours are properly insured.

"I think we're being forced into it," Giles said. "The insurance issue will make us write a tour ordinance."

Giles hopes the ordinance changes will be completed this winter so they will be in place during next summer, the peak tour season.


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