Partly because of the proliferation of yard sale signs, the town is looking to set up regulations governing signage as well as the frequency of yard sales.
“This is a quality of life issue,” said Deputy Mayor John Reilly, who has been seeking out information about regulations currently in place in other municipalities. “I’ve researched this in several other towns, which faced similar problems.”
Reilly is asking the Town Council to review his report to possibly establish similar regulations in Secaucus. Currently, residential garage sales are not regulated.
“While some people hold garage sales to clean out their basements, backyards and attics, some residents hold garage sales like a regular business,” Reilly said.
He said some residents have one or two garage sales a year, some as many as five or six, while still others have perpetual sales.
“We found that most people just want to get something back for the things they’ve had stored in their basement, but there are others that go out and buy things wholesale then put it out as if it had come out of their attic,” he said. “Ten years ago, you would see a sign from time to time, but now it has become middle America’s means of income.”
One garage sale on Ninth Street, for instance, was so apparently frequent, the resident has installed shelves along the walls of the garage.
Reilly said communities around North Jersey had handled the problem in various ways. Most are reluctant to take away people’s right to hold sales, but many limit the number of sales people can hold during the year.
“Most towns limit residents to two and four per year,” Reilly said. “One guy held a garage sale for three or four weeks in a row.”
Yard sales can be particularly burdensome for neighbors, since they attract crowds of people into residential areas.
“Some early birds show up at six or seven in morning, park in front of people’s houses waiting for the sale to start,” Reilly said, noting that neighbors are often reluctant to complain for fear or starting a feud. “That’s why the town must do something.”
Under most regulations, hours for yard sales are regulated, generally restricting these to hours between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.
“A resident would not be able to hold a yard sale for more than three days in a row,” Reilly said. Reilly said he believes Secaucus needs to regulate its garage sales, but acknowledged the council would receive complaints.
“We will get heat for this,” he said.
Indeed, several residents holding different weekend garage sales during the last few weeks said they were opposed to the town imposing regulations.
Signs are one of the most visible problems
One big gripe Reilly has with many of the garage sales has been the proliferation of signs. Many people put out signs all over – mostly on telephone or light poles – then never take them down.
A brief survey of Secaucus on two weekends in late June and early July found several dozen paper signs posted for a Golden Avenue yard sale from late May. Some signs over a month old were also still visible on poles along streets just off Paterson Plank Road in the North End of town as well.
Although the town has an ordinance prohibiting the use of poles for this purpose, the practice persists. One pole near First Street had as many as six paper signs posted for different yard sales.
“But the bigger problem is that people never take them down,” Reilly said. “It has become an eyesore.”
Reilly said towns vary on how they handle the sign problem, although many require residents to take out a permit for yard sales.
“Some offer a redeemable fee that the resident can get back once the signs are removed,” Reilly said, noting that other towns simply set a basic fee, while still others fine residents who don’t remove the signs.
If the town adopts a policy that would offer a refund, no refund would be issued if an inspector or police officer finds a sign still posted after the event has ended. According to municipal ordinance, a resident must remove signs for an event within 24 hours after the event is over. Under existing ordinance, a person can be fined from $15 to $200 if he or she fails to comply.
The town also has the option to regulate the number of signs a resident can put up. Some towns even issue the signs with the permit, from two to four signs. In these cases, the resident is also restricted from placing signs on poles, and must seek permission to post them on private property.
Communities such as Secaucus may require residents to use public bulletin boards. Two years ago – in an effort to curb the spread of signs on poles advertising everything from yard sales to lost cats – the town installed 14 bulletin boards in the most public areas of town.
Councilman John Bueckner felt the town should impose fines for failure to remove signs.
“I think it should be a hefty fine per sign,” he said. “If we charge $25 per sign, we would take away the profits of the sale, and that would encourage people to remove the signs.”
But Bueckner said he disliked the idea of having an inspector going around looking for signs, since it might cost the town money. Reilly said town employees are out and about anyway, and it would not require much additional work to look at signs.
Where as posting signs on poles is currently illegal, the town could relax that a little.
“The reason why PSE&G and the telephone company don’t want signs posted on poles is because of the staples used,” Mayor Dennis Elwell said. “Workers can get hurt because of them.”
Elwell said residents need to post for garage sales at the end of their block along main roads so that people know where the event is being held. He suggested that if the town is issuing signs, the town might also provide these signs with robe to tie to the poles.