By Judy Reed

Most local candidates running for office don’t have a big budget for advertising, and that includes Solon Township Supervisor Bob Ellick, who is running for reelection. And right now he is wishing he hadn’t spent money on signs, because they keep being stolen.

“Every year you always have a couple come up missing, or pulled out of the ground and thrown down, but this year is the first I’ve had that many come up missing,” he explained.

Over the last couple of weeks, he said he’s had at least a dozen of them stolen out of people’s yards in Solon Township. “I had specific permission from landowners to have them there,” he noted. In one instance, his sign was next to the sign of another person running for trustee in Solon Township but Ellick’s was the only one stolen.

“A thief is a thief. Somebody knows where they are and I’d love to have them back,” said Ellick. “It makes you wonder what else they are stealing. I’d put one in my yard but they would probably steal that, too.”

Stealing political signs is a crime, and Ellick has reported the thefts to the Kent County Sheriff Department. But he would rather the signs were just returned. “Whoever stole them can leave them in the foyer of the Solon Township Hall,” he said.