A subcommittee of the Board of Aldermen recommended Tuesday placing a limit on how long roadside memorials can remain on public space.
Republican Aldermen Ken Hughes, David Lenart and Tony Szewczyk voted unanimously for the idea, which will most likely be presented to the full Board of Aldermen at its next meeting, later this month.
The trio — comprising the city’s Community Relations Committee — suggested existing memorials be excluded from most of the new regulations, Hughes said.
The suggestion to leave existing memorials exempt from a time frame came at the request of Jill Garofalo, whose 16-year-old son, Tim, died in an ATV accident on Hawthorne Avenue in 2004.
There is a memorial on Hawthorne Avenue marking the family’s loss.
Many of the other details will be worked out when the full board meets, Hughes said. The subcommittee didn’t specify a precise time limit for the memorials, but Hughes said they were leaning toward three months.
“That’s up for discussion. Obviously you can’t put a time limit on grief,” Hughes said.
The idea to regulate roadside memorials has been kicking around since August, after Szewczyk raised questions about a long-time memorial set up near the Catholic War Veterans buildings on Derby Avenue.
Scewczyk worried broken glass from candles on a sidewalk could pose a danger to pedestrians.
Hughes said any memorial that poses a hazard to the public — including existing memorials — would be modified immediately.
“They can’t impede traffic, they can’t block a sidewalk and they can’t have glass,” Hughes said.
Checking on roadside memorials will most likely fall upon the shoulders of the city’s two blight officers. Members of the Department of Public Works would be asked to clean-up memorials.
The law, if adopted by the Board of Aldermen, would not regulate any memorial on private property, Hughes said.
