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The memorials to loved ones lost suddenly dot roadways throughout Butler County. Though they are illegal, enforcement of their removal is lax at best, according to a survey of communities by the Journal-News.
Officials tasked with keeping roadways and the public right of way safe say the memorials are a distraction to drivers that could result in another tragedy. But family members say the memorials offer a place to heal and can serve as a reminder to others about the dangers of driving.
It is illegal to place any signs or other objects in the public right of way in Ohio, according to Brian Cunningham, communications director of Ohio Department of Transportation District 8, which includes Butler County. And for good reason, he said.
“We have had people stop their car, get out and run across the interstate to place something on a memorial,” Cunningham said. “These are places where a tragedy has occurred. We would like not to have another tragedy.”
Typically, signage in the right of way, including campaign signs and memorials, is removed by road crews while they are mowing, Cunningham said.
“But we don’t scour the countryside looking for them,” he said, adding that crews will remove them as they come across them.
Removal of such signage, he said, is low on the list of maintenance priorities for ODOT crews.
“I get more complaints about potholes and litter in a week than I do in a year about memorials,” Cunningham said.
‘I am going to be their worst nightmare’
A large memorial erected at the scene of a 2015 crash that killed a Cincinnati construction worker was removed last month from Cox Road in West Chester Twp., but not by local road crews.
Amber Rooks died from injuries she sustained after a vehicle struck her and four other utility workers in April 2015, in a marked construction zone on Cox Road. Shortly after, a large memorial went up at the scene.
Township officials determined the memorial — which included a teddy bear dressed in a construction vest mounted to a large cross made of pieces of reflective barricade — was in the public right of way and notified Shannon Dethlefs, Rooks’ mother, of their intention to remove it due to safety concerns.
Dethlefs, Rooks’ mother, said she saw no reason for the removal, noting the family was maintaining the area around the memorial and it was a place where Rooks’ 9-year-old son, Dylan, went to grieve the loss of his mother.
Before township workers could remove the memorial, however, Dethlefs had it taken down by the company that employed her daughter.
“I didn’t just want them (the township) to toss it in the back of a truck,” Dethlefs previously told the Journal-News, choking back tears. She said she will continue to fight to have the memorial put back on or near the original location.
“I am going to be their worst nightmare,” she said.
Barb Wilson, township spokeswoman, said officials have “great compassion” for the family, but they have to consistently apply the rules for a public right of way.
When Rooks’ memorial was removed, two other memorials for victims of fatal crashes were removed from township right of ways, according to Wilson.
‘We are more sensitive about memorials’
In Hamilton, workers routinely remove signs in the right of way, according to Rich Engle, director of the city’s Public Works department.
“But we are more sensitive about memorials,” he said.
At some point, however, the city must remove memorials for liability reasons.
According to Engle, there is a liability to taxpayers for anything that happens in the right of way. Therefore, he said, it must be kept free of unauthorized materials.
A permit is required to put anything in the public right of way on county roads, according to Chris Petrocy of the Butler County Engineer’s Office.
“There is always a danger when you drive something into the ground because of underground cable and utilities,” Petrocy said.
He said workers usually come across memorials while mowing or doing road work, but they don’t automatically remove them.
“We overlook them unless they pose a safety hazard to the motoring public,” Petrocy said. “If they do become a safety hazard and someone brings it to our attention, it needs to be removed.”
No complaints, not a priority
Madison Twp. resident Karla Edwards maintained a memorial for two years along the West Middletown bridge. It’s where her sister Cheryl Durkin’s remains where thrown into the river by convicted killer James Lawson in 1998.
“Oh, they pick and choose,” she said of officials’ approach to the removal of roadside memorials.
The wooden cross with an angel placed on the inside of a guard rail has been stolen twice, according to Edwards. Both times, a new cross was erected. But after the third theft, the city of Middletown informed her the memorial could no longer stand in the right of way.
“They said the same thing … it was a distraction,” Edwards said.
“But don’t think I haven’t been tempted to put it back by the river. I see plenty of other memorials in Middletown and around there. I really believe it is just when they get a complaint that they make it come down,” she said.
David VanArsdale, Middletown director of public safety, said it is illegal for signs and memorials to be posted in the right of way, but the city is respectful to mourning families.
“While it is illegal to post signs in the right of way, we are respectful of the families that have lost a loved one. I know that in the past when memorials have been erected for an extended period, the families (if known) have been contacted and given the opportunity to remove them before we remedy the situation,” VanArsdale said in an email response to questions about city policy.
A drive around Middletown on Tuesday, Aug. 9, turned up two memorials: one at Roosevelt and Bonita, where Bryan Brooks was killed in a November motorcycle crash; and another on South Main Street, where Guilian Spegall was killed in a car crash in April.
“Public works always has projects there are working on and it may be that there have been no complaints and it has not risen to the top of their priority list,” VanArsdale said when asked about existing memorials in the city.
Middletown Director of Public Works Scott Tadych said there is no time frame for removing temporary roadside memorials, assuming they are small and not a distraction to the travelling public or road crews.
“(But) I would recommend they are removed prior to winter snow plowing operations. They likely will not hold up to snow being thrown,” Tadych said.
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