Today is the day. We all vote and then wait for the votes to be counted. I like to vote in person. It just seems like I’m really making an effort to exercise my right to vote as a citizen of the good old U.S.A.

For those of you who haven’t decided how you should vote on Measure S, I sure do hope you’re going to vote “yes.”

A “yes” vote is to approve an ordinance that will do a lot for our fair city. The City Council has already voted to approve the measure, but some folks didn’t like the deal and now we all get to vote on it. Fair enough. We should all know what we’re voting for today.

As originally written, the ordinance wasn’t going to cost the city anything – but now we have to count the cost of the election. So it is costing the city of Santa Clarita around $220,000 to hold today’s vote. But then the really neat things start to happen.

A little over 60 billboards will be removed from the Metrolink right-of-way. You see, removing billboards was one of the key issues when our city was formed. We wanted to control the use of them back then, and now we finally can.

Once the 60-plus billboards are removed, there will be three electronic billboards built, two near Highway 14 and one near I-5 that will bring in revenue to the city of $500,000 to $1 million each and every year. The money can be used for anything we need. Roads, parks, infrastructure – yes, just about anything you can think of. How about increased police protection, too?

Yes, the city makes money on the deal.

And then there is the reduced light pollution from all of the lighting on the current signs. Huge floodlights that keep birds awake and bats from catching bugs. Many other creatures are also affected by those lights, so it will be so good to see that glow removed from our night sky.

Plus the city makes money on the deal.

After at least one of the signs fell over the tracks in Newhall a while back, imagine what could have happened had it fallen when a train was moving toward it. Improved railway safety for Metrolink and the public at large.

Taking those signs down also sends a message to sign companies not affected in this deal that they could be next. Lots more big and ugly (plus some small and ugly) signs could be removed from our city.

How many billboards do you see in the Simi Valley? Not many. It is beautiful over there without many big signs all over the place. Measure S starts us on the road to getting a sign-free city except for the three electronic signs being installed under the new ordinance.

Flapping in the wind.

In addition to Caltrans’ existing informational signs on the 14 and the 5 that tell motorists of problems on those roads, the three new signs will be able to pass on information such as Amber Alerts, local road conditions, traffic problems and things like that. Best of all, they will not have any political ads. That alone is worth the “yes” vote for Measure S.

I was driving along Soledad Canyon Road a couple of weeks ago and one of the signs had a huge sheet of material flapping in the wind. Waiting for the light to go to The Home Depot, I watched that huge chunk of plastic rip off from the sign and blow down the tracks. I’m happy a train was coming. It was left in a pile of plastic sheeting in the bushes at the side of the tracks. It was a large enough piece it would have covered the windows of the train engine. Just what we need – blind engineers – don’t you think?

I can’t wait for the time when I’m going east on Lyons Avenue and come to the stop at Railroad Avenue. I can’t wait because soon I may look up and not see that huge, ugly billboard staring back at me. I made it a personal priority to boycott any company that used that sign to advertise. I can’t tell you how awful I think that sign makes our town look. Sort of 1962 Route 66 ugly. It would be good only if it told directions to something important like maybe the world’s largest collection of used golf balls.

In spite of what a few naysayers have said, it is a great deal for our city. Would have been cheap to implement, had not folks wanted to fight it. Implementation was free. It is nearly so now.

And did I mention it’s going to make money for the city, too?

Well it is. So there.

Vote “yes” on Measure S.

Darryl Manzer grew up in the Pico Canyon oil town of Mentryville in the 1960s and attended Hart High School. After a career in the U.S. Navy he returned to live in the Santa Clarita Valley. He can be reached at dmanzer@scvhistory.com. His older commentaries are archived at DManzer.com; his newer commentaries can be accessed [here]. Watch his walking tour of Mentryville [here].