By ANDY GARDNER

MASSENA -- The town wants signs removed from public right-of-ways.

Councilman Samuel Carbone pointed to a section of town code which bars private signs on public property.

He said the wire frames are getting stuck in town mowers. Highway Superintendent Frank Diagostino said those where stakes are pounded in can cause a safety hazard.

“They could hit a gas line, or a cable line (electrical) or a Time Warner Cable fiber optic line,” he said, adding that in some areas, they are close to the surface.

The councilors all agreed the town shouldn’t have to divert resources to picking them up and the code office should handle it.

“It’s not politically motivated,” Councilman Tom Miller said after noting some of the signs in question advertise political candidates. “For all this, do we have a system to pick them up? We have to have a system that’s correct and fair to everybody.”

“How do we police it?” Diagostino said.

Carbone, after reading the local law a second time, found a subsection that says signs on a public right-of-way should be removed “within 24 hours of sale,” but there’s no context.

“What’s precluding that?” Town Supervisor Joe Gray asked.

“I don’t know, we might have to re-write it,” Carbone said.