- By Kathy Zahler and Star Staff
- News
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A total of 30 yard signs for Mike Allinger and incumbent Casey Powers, Democratic candidates for Newfield Town Board, were stolen from properties along Shaffer Road, Main Street, and Millard Hill Road between the hours of 7 and 10 PM on October 22. (See attached map.) Signs for the opposition candidates were left in place, making it "obvious," according to Newfield Democrats, that "this is not a prank…but a deliberate theft of signs for the Better Newfield and Democratic candidates for this year's election to the Newfield Town Board."In Lansing Donna Scott reports that four signs were stolen from the Lansing Station Road home of Karin Pohl. Scott had delivered the signs near Pohl's front door, behind some potted plants. The signs were taken while the Pohls were out of town.
"This house is one you cannot see from the road since it is in a row of houses on the lake side of the Norfolk Southern RR track that is behind a small wooded area by the road," Scott says. "So someone walking on the railroad track, or driving by her house by the RR track, had to have taken them."
Since signs were posted with the permission of residents, their theft is considered criminal mischief and theft of property. The Newfield Democrats have spoken to police and plan to file a report with the sheriff.
In each case, these signs had been placed with the permission of the property owner. Democrats say the theft was very systematic, not random, and was not the work of a prankster since all the Bryant and Aidun signs remained, as did the Heatsmart Tompkins and Clean Air/Water signs next to Democrat signs."What matters most is not the cost," said the Democrats in an email, "but that election signs should be able to be freely displayed during this important election period."
Allinger and Powers are running for four-year town board seats in the election on November 3.
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