County of Dawson issued the following announcement on Apr. 28.
Energov, the reporting software that the Marshal’s Office and Planning & Development uses, was down 04/25-04/27 for an upgrade, which has been scheduled for over a year. Due to this scheduled downtime, the Marshal’s office operated with one code officer responding to animal control and priority code calls while a second officer and the County Marshal conducted a sign sweep of the public right of ways (ROW) of major thoroughfares within the unincorporated areas of the county.
During these 3 days, the office removed a total of 266 signs which were taken to the Public Works Transfer Station and separated - political signs from advertising signs. Signs can be picked-up at the Dawson County Transfer Station.
Sign Sweep
Roads Affected:
-Hwy 53 @ Duck Thurmond Rd to the Dawsonville city limits
-Hwy 53 @ Perimeter Rd to the county line (War Hill Park church)
-Dawson Forest Rd from WMA Campground to Hwy 53
-Hwy 9 from the Forsyth County line north to Hwy 136
-Hwy 136 @ Hwy 9 to Harmony Church Rd
-Harmony Church Rd @ Hwy 136 to 400
-Lumpkin Campground Rd @ 400 South to the Forsyth County line
**Officers did not remove any signs from 400 due to safety concerns for personnel in measuring the ROWs.**
Identification of public ROW and City/County limits:
In order to identify the ROW distances for each roadway and to determine if a property was within the city or county, officers used both the Dawson County Road Map from the Public Works website and the Zoning map from the Planning & Development website (links provided below).
Map from PW: 
https://www.dawsoncounty.org/.../page/dawson-county-road-map
Zoning map: https://dawsoncountyga.maps.arcgis.com/.../index.html...
Measurements of ROW:
Officers took the total ROW, divided it in half, and measured outward (toward the shoulder) from the centerline of the roadway using a measuring wheel. Prior to starting the operation and utilizing a tape measure, the wheel was checked and was accurate at a distance of 5 feet. Some signs within a few feet of the paved portion of the roadway were removed without measure due to their proximate distance to the actual roadway.
Important notes from Chapter 129: Sign Ordinance regarding Enforcement
Sec. 129-329 explains enforcement. In short, signs located in the public ROW of the unincorporated areas within the county are considered litter and may be removed by the Marshal’s Office or the Sheriff’s Office without notice (Sec. 129-329(b)). If a sign is on private property and outside of the public ROW, our office shall notify the owner by letter and provide 10 days from the date of the letter to bring the sign into compliance (Sec. 129-329(a)). We have identified several additional signs that do not meet the requirements as stated in the ordinance and will be notifying the owners by mail in the coming days.
Sign Ordinance from Municode: https://library.municode.com/.../codes/code_of_ordinances...
Original source can be found here.
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