By John Estridge
It took Brookville businessman Rick Gill a year or more, but he finally was awarded the right to go ahead and put a sign on the side of his business for another Brookville business.
Gill said he was asked by the owner of Jansing Auto Body, off St. Mary’s Road, to put a sign up showing the way to Jansing’s.
Gill’s business, Brookville Gun Shop, sits at the intersection of Sixth and Main streets. Sixth Street contains the bridge across the Whitewater River’s west fork. It carries Sixth Street, which becomes St. Mary’s Road. Jansing sits at the western edge of Brookville’s town limits, about a half mile away, and it is far from visible for Main Street vehicular traffic.
Thus, Gill had a billboard-type sign placed on the side of one of his buildings on the Sixth Street side pointing the way to the Jansing business. Although there were no complaints from the public, Gill said town manager Tim Ripperger measured the sign and found it fell out of Brookville’s sign ordinance limits.
However, if the sign had been for Gill’s own business, the sign would have met sign ordinance requirements, Ripperger said at a recent Franklin County Board of Zoning Appeals meeting.
Gill’s journey, for allowing his sign to remain, started with BTC at least one year ago. BTC members eventually sent him to the BZA for a variance.
Gill recently went before the BZA, spending money for the necessary registered mailing, application permit and legal advertising, which goes along with a variance application. According to Gill, both he and the Jansing business owner, paid the costs.
The BZA approved Gill’s variance request with just one dissenting vote. There was a condition he had to make the sign more resistant to wind damage even though it has not been damaged by wind in the time it has been up. However, Gill had to go back before Brookville Town Council for a permit. The BZA hearing was on Wednesday, August 12. Thus, Gill assumed his matter would be on the next BTC meeting, which was Tuesday, August 25, but he was not on the agenda.
Even though he was not on the agenda, he addressed BTC board members near the end of the hour-long meeting.
Gill explained to the BTC members the situation up to that point. He said he has been a business owner in Brookville for 15 years, and at the current location for a dozen years, originally owning a jewelry store. After his wife retired, he turned the business into a gun store, but he still does jewelry also.
He said owning a business in Brookville and making it a success is very difficult. And it is more difficult for businesses off Main Street that does not have the traffic, which Main Street supplies. According to Gill, there are no sites on Main Street, which would work for the Jansing business.
Gill talked about the professionalism of the sign and the fact no one from the public complained. He said he felt like he was singled out and picked on by council for some reason as he said there are similar signs along Main Street. When BTC President Mike Biltz asked for examples, Gill refused to give any.
Also, Gill said in all the years he has been in business on Main Street, BTC members have only been to his business one time. That was Biltz and BTC member Sam Schuck, and it was in relation to a sidewalk and paving project that took place a few years ago.
Gill said Schuck represents the area where Gill’s business is located.
“Brooville town and the town board are not business friendly,” Gill said. “I’m sorry about that. Running a business in Brookville is extremely hard. You fight everyday to bring the money in to pay the bills.”
Biltz said council has spent a lot of time with the Main Street paving and sidewalk project, trying to make Main Street better.
Eventually, the motion to give Gill a permit was approved. He said the sign is currently down to allow the building to be painted.