{"id":5358,"date":"2018-07-04T02:17:55","date_gmt":"2018-07-04T06:17:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/?p=5358"},"modified":"2018-07-04T12:55:34","modified_gmt":"2018-07-04T16:55:34","slug":"lavallette-wants-liquor-store-sign-guy-to-move","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/2018\/07\/lavallette-wants-liquor-store-sign-guy-to-move\/","title":{"rendered":"Lavallette Wants Liquor Store ‘Sign Guy’ to Move"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"A<\/a> A liquor store employee holds a sign on Route 35 advertising the business. (Photo: Daniel Nee)<\/figure>\n

Just as bridges, water towers and miniature golf courses dot the route to \u201cthe Shore\u201d for many tourists, so does another familiar sight: a man (sometimes in a beach chair) waving a sign directing the masses down the proper street to purchase some libations for the trip.<\/p>\n

Lavallette officials say they would rather go without the roadside spectacle, but the owner of Lavallette Liquors said the small sign on Route 35 south is vital to keeping his business afloat.<\/p>\n

The matter became a subject for public debate this week at Lavallette\u2019s borough council meeting. As it turns out, the issue of the \u201csign guy\u201d goes deeper than anyone had ever thought, with both Lavallette and Toms River Township police both involved in shoeing him away \u2013 at least over the border on the other side of the street.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve seen the guy sleeping in a chair out there in the blazing sun,\u201d said Joe Divuolo, of Lavallette. \u201cAccording to what I\u2019ve read on the town website, there is no advertising allowed on Route 35 south.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe shouldn\u2019t be sitting out there with a beach chair and umbrella,\u201d said Councilman James Borowski. \u201cIt\u2019s just a blemish on the community.\u201d<\/p>\n

The man is employed by Lavallette Liquors, located on Route 35 north. The liquor store sits on the border of Lavallette and Toms River, and both towns have received complaints, said Mayor Walter LaCicero. But when officers from one town ask the sign-bearer to move, he usually just crosses the street from one jurisdiction to the other.<\/p>\n

The liquor store\u2019s location on the northbound side of Route 35 is the reason the sign exists. Joe Loundy, its owner, said he depends on tourism revenue to keep the business profitable. If visitors from North Jersey or New York don\u2019t know where to turn to stock up on spirits on their way into town, chances are they\u2019ll go somewhere else, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf they go past us, they\u2019ll usually just keep going because they know Spirits is down the road,\u201d Loundy said. \u201cHaving the sign out there brings a lot of our customers here.\u201d<\/p>\n

The controversy over the sign goes far beyond small-town politics and preferences. Borough Attorney\u00a0Philip George said there may be first amendment concerns regarding \u201ccommercial speech\u201d if the borough tries to oust the human billboard for good.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has a lot less protection than, say, if you were speaking about politics,\u201d said George. \u201cBut it\u2019s still protected.\u201d<\/p>\n

Robert Brice, Lavallette\u2019s administrator, is a former police chief in Wall Township. There were similar complaints there without a clear solution.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey basically go under the same protections as labor picketers,\u201d said Brice. \u201cBut when they\u2019re static, and when the sign is up against the telephone pole, that is advertising and is not allowed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vicki Centanni\u2019s home backs up to the state highway right-of-way where the sign is usually displayed. She said she\u2019s spoken with the sign holder \u2013 \u201che seems like a nice guy,\u201d she said \u2013 and has witnessed the cat-and-mouse enforcement firsthand. At one point, she said, an officer told the man he had to continuously move while holding the sign. Others have ordered him out of their jurisdictions.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey always come back with a new directive \u2013 you have to sit here rather than there \u2013 and then the police come again,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Loundy said employing someone for the sole purpose of holding a sign \u201ccosts a fortune,\u201d but is necessary to compete with chain liquor stores like Spirits or Buy Rite.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need people to know we\u2019re here,\u201d he said. \u201cBecause if they don\u2019t know where to turn, we lose them.\u201d<\/p>\n

There were several ideas thrown around at the council meeting about how to get around the constitutional concerns. One resident suggested taking the matter up with the state Department of Transportation since, in theory, the sign could distract a driver and cause them to turn too quickly.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere may be a restriction from the state because he\u2019s standing on state property,\u201d said Council President Anita Zalom.<\/p>\n

George said the borough may look into placing a restriction on the business\u2019s liquor license ordering \u201ccompliance with all borough ordinances,\u201d including the code for advertising signs.<\/p>\n

LaCicero, himself a former police officer who now works as an attorney, asked George to do some research on the matter.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of constitutional law with regard to somebody holding a sign, no matter where he is,\u201d LaCicero said.<\/p>\n

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A liquor store employee holds a sign on Route 35 advertising the business. (Photo: Daniel Nee) Just as bridges, water towers and miniature golf courses dot the route to \u201cthe Shore\u201d for many tourists, so does another familiar sight: a man (sometimes in a beach chair) waving a sign directing the masses down the proper […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5359,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[18,3,2],"tags":[1382,29,1383,41,1384],"class_list":["post-5358","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-lavallette-government","category-lavallette","tag-lavallette-liquors","tag-lavallette-nj-news","tag-liquor-store","tag-route-35","tag-sign"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/IMG_4002.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pgsn9q-1oq","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5358","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5358"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5358\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5359"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5358"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5358"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5358"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}