New advocacy group aims to improve the view in Chatham

One day recently Ardis Wood uglified her Ardsley Park backyard, planting it with advertising yard signs.

 A green and white one asked, "Need a Colonic?" Next to it, a bright yellow sign declared "We buy houses in any condition" in a font meant to look like handwriting. One sign even advertised the yard signs themselves.

"They have a tendency to self-proliferate," said Wood, who regularly plucks the signs from public rights of way where they're not supposed to be. "It's litter on a stick. Once it hits the public right of way it's litter."

Wood and Ardsley Park Neighborhood Association President Nick Palumbo both sit on the national board of Scenic America, a nonprofit dedicated to improving the nation's visual environment. The signs were meant to fire up a group of about 20 people, including garden club members, the Savannah Tree Foundation and local government employees from Savannah and Thunderbolt, gathered to kick off the local chapter of the organization.

Founded in the 1980s, Scenic America boasts more than 50 local affiliates. It lists its main objectives as: Preserving Community Character, Honoring Parks and Open Spaces, Celebrating Byways and Gateways, Mitigating Overhead Wires, and Promoting Beautiful Highways. Scenic Chatham hasn't set its local priorities yet, but is welcoming new members to join and provide input.

There are lots of issues to tackle in Chatham, Wood and Palumbo said. Along with the yard signs, posters around the garden illustrated the dos and don'ts of public spaces around Savannah. Do's included the CAT buses that no longer carry an advertising wrap. Billboards played a prominent role in the don'ts.

"I started asking myself why, when I go over to Wilmington Island and I go over the bridge I look on the left side and this beautiful scenic vista, the Lowcountry, the Coastal Empire, and in the middle of it all is a McDonald's billboard blocking my view. Why?" Palumbo said. "When I look at the grand Victory Drive, one of the most historic roadways in Georgia and it's polluted by a digital billboard poking through the 100-year-old oak trees and I ask myself, why? Because up to now we've let it get to this point. We deserve an advocacy organization that will work full-time on these issues. It's only when we stand together and ask for something better that it will happen."

Scenic Chatham expects to meet again at the end of October to strategize and begin to set priorities. For more information and to be included in its mailing list, send an email to ScenicChatham@gmail.com.