Sandy Springs has been scared senseless by a 12-foot Frankenstein monster blowup, according to two businessmen who were ticketed for having one on their roof.
Bob Brown and Kevin Foley got into hot water recently when they mounted the inflatable monster atop their Red Baron's Antiques shop on Roswell Road before Halloween.
"We got a ticket and were told we had five days to take it down," said Foley, Red Baron's general manager.
Foley said he called the city before mounting the giant doll and was told there would be no problem. On Oct. 20, he was issued a citation for having the figure mounted on the roof. They had it removed several days later.
Now, city officials are considering ways to regulate holiday displays, particularly blowup figures at businesses. But no one is wielding a pitchfork yet, because the details may be tricky, and some City Council members aren't anxious to jump in.
On Tuesday, the City Council discussed how far local government should go in regulating signs and displays. Sandy Springs currently allows holiday displays -- string lights, blowups and decorations -- for about 30 days, three weeks before and one week following a holiday.
"I can live with a string of lights for even more than 30 days, but 30 days of those horrible blowups is a long time," Mayor Eva Galambos said.
Councilman Tiberio DeJulio said he'd like to distinguish seasonal displays from pure marketing, but he doesn't think anyone should tell people how to celebrate a holiday. Councilman Gabriel Sterling went further, saying repeatedly he doesn't think the city should govern a business's expression of holiday spirit.
Most council members favored some form of control on displays, but they all wanted to avoid legal challenges and accusations of heavy-handedness.
"If you want to control it, you have to tie it to some type of event where you have a time frame around it," said Assistant City Attorney Cecil McLendon.
The Council decided to take up the issue again to hammer out details. They did agree that the time frame could be expanded to allow displays one month before an event.
In the meantime, Red Baron Antiques will await word, a little exasperated from the experience.
"We're not troublemakers, but there's no community involvement anymore in Sandy Springs," Foley said.
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