THE SLIPPERY SLOPE OF SIGN PROLIFERATION

Copyright © 2006 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc.

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We have some advice for the Maine Department of Transportation: Don't go there.

What we mean is that the department shouldn't accede to the considerable persuasive skills of the Bossov Ballet Theatre's director, Col. Michael Wyly. Col. Wyly has aimed his verbal Howitzers at the department's policy of not allowing highway signs for cultural centers or tourist attractions that draw less than 5,000 people.

That policy means the ballet theatre can't get a highway sign directing tourists and visitors to the Pittsfield exit that leads to its headquarters.

That policy does mean that you'll find a highway sign for Funtown Splashtown USA in Saco, which makes a lot of hot kids happy during the summer but admittedly doesn't have quite the high-culture cachet of the Bossov Ballet Theatre.

On the other hand, there are still a few of us around who remember the bad old days before people like Maine's venerable Marion Fuller Brown fought a long and ultimately successful battle to ban the highway billboards that blighted our beautiful landscape from stem to stern.

While we sympathize with Col. Wyly's desire to snare highway visitors, we just can't imagine that allowing one teeny exception in Pittsfield would stop with that one teeny sign. It's a slippery slope, and we hope that the Maine Department of Transportation stands firm.