Murphys sign saga takes another twist

By Claudette Langley

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Posted: Monday, September 8, 2008 10:25 AM CDT

Murphys Hotel having problems with their new sign. Enterprise file photo

The Murphys sign saga continues with a new twist-the project may be illegal.

The owner of the Murphys Hotel learned at Tuesday’s Calaveras County Board of Supervisors meeting that his plan to install a new sign is not allowed under county code. Dorian Faught was at the meeting to find out if the board was going to move to officially review his project that had already been approved by the Planning Commission.

“I’ve been sabotaged with everything I’ve tried,” Faught said. “I finally get permission and now this. I am not asking anything out of the ordinary.”

The hotel owner is seeking permission to install a neon sign, sporting a cocktail glass on top, that is a replica of one that hung in front of the establishment in the 1940s. He is proposing removing a dying tree and putting up a decorative pole to hold the new sign in the tree’s spot on the sidewalk.

However, as it turned out his project may not be ordinary or legal.

Interim Public Works Director Mike Miller informed Faught and the supervisors that putting a pole and sign on a sidewalk is prohibited in Calaveras. Miller read from County Code 12.08.050, which states “No application will be accepted nor permit issued for construction or maintaining a loading platform upon a right of way, or for erecting, using or maintaining therein or thereon a post, pole, column or structure for support for advertising signs. Any such installation is an illegal encroachment.”

For the complete story, see Friday’s print edition of the Calaveras Enterprise or our e-Edition.

Comment (1 comment(s))

david wrote on Sep 8, 2008 4:38 PM:

" Like I said last week, Murphys is dead, let the man have the sign, it will not make any difference... "

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