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Valley business owner battling political sign blight

Posted at 8:51 PM, Oct 29, 2018
and last updated 2018-10-30 01:16:20-04

The roadside messages come at you quickly.

Vote yes.
Vote no.
Vote for him.
Don't vote for her.

You may even think there's a Senate candidate named Homie. Pratik Patel thinks the message these candidates are sending is getting lost.

"It makes it (property) look terrible; signs are broken. We had a lot of monsoons and storms, and it just litters our property," he said.

Patel owns Viking Cleaners at 32nd Street and Indian School Road. The company has been in the building for nearly 20 years. Patel says he deals with campaign signs every election season, but this year is out of control.  

It's not the signs on public property that irritate him. Patel says it's the signs the campaigns placed on his property.

"I read that signs should only be about six feet. There was one that was about eight feet. It was obstructing the view of our drive-thru and our building, and I think that was the last point," he said.

Patel said he tries to be respectful by contacting the campaigns and asking them to remove the signs. He said they usually don't respond, so his workers go out to clean up the mess.

"They come out here with gloves because it's usually rebar," he said. "They'll pull it out and leave them by the dumpsters."

Patel says he's even had to repair his irrigation system in the past. 

There are still about three weeks before candidates have to remove all of the election signs.  

In Phoenix, they must be removed from public property within 15 days after the general election, within ten days if they're on private property. If Patel had his way, they wouldn't be near his business. He doesn't want it to appear that he supports any of them. Patel is hoping his new 'private property' signs get his message across.