City bans T-shirts on store facades

The first reading of a  revised sign ordinance that would prohibit the use of merchandise of signage—temporary or otherwise—had its first reading unanimously passed by the Custer City Council at the council’s Jan. 5 meeting.
If approved via second reading, the amended ordinance would require any merchandise that is on the exterior wall of a business to be taken down. City planner Tessah Behlings said merchandise can still be placed on windows and doors of a business, but cannot be affixed to the exterior walls.
The ordinance still allows for use of racks for merchandise on the sidewalk, and while it does not spell out that the merchandise has to be brought into the business overnight, it is something that can be addressed int he future should it become necessary, Behlings said. There is also no grandfathering in of current businesses.
“So we should not be seeing T-shirts on the outside of buildings starting next season?” alderwoman Jeannie Fischer asked, to which Behlings said no.
The revised ordinance does say that A-frame signs, also known as sandwich boards, must come in the building overnight. The rest of the revisions to the ordinance dealt with reworking the nonconforming sign paragraph and highlighting citations to definitions.
In other news from the Jan. 5 meeting, the council:
• Made all of its annual designations for 2026, such as the depository listings, official newspaper, etc., as it does each year. It also approved its annual wage listing which highlights what each city employee will make in pay for 2026. City council members are paid $712.56 per month, and the mayor position is paid $1,997.50 per month. 
A complete listing of all of the employee pay can be found in a chart in the legal notices of this week’s Chronicle.
• Discussed the city crew’s cleanup efforts in the wake of the Dec. 18 windstorm. The city has been fielding a lot of calls for trash cans, and the cemetery was hit hard by the storm.
The council also discussed how to handle response, warning messages, etc., during such an event. Because the weather was so warm the county did not open warming shelters, but Custer County Commissioner Mike Busskohl, who was at the meeting, told the council county emergency management was monitoring the situation and would have opened shelters had the weather been colder.