If Plant City commissioners have their way, the menacing bench advertisement featuring “Game of Thrones” character The Hound soon will be removed from James L. Redman Parkway.
Along with every other Metro bench in the city.
Commissioners directed city staff July 22, to draft a document to terminate the city’s longtime licensing agreement with Metropolitan Systems Inc., the company that maintains the benches and sells advertising on them. The termination document will be reviewed formally at the commission’s Aug. 12 meeting.
Commissioner Billy Keel first broached the subject, after he received several complaints about the benches. Many of the benches have been placed within the right-of-way, and some even sit on city sidewalks. Residents have argued the benches exist solely as vehicles for advertising, with no benefit to the Plant City community. Furthermore, with no bus service operating in Plant City, the need for the benches is non-existent, they say.
“Their placement is about advertising rather than general public use,” Keel said. “I live and work in Plant City, and I have yet to see one person sitting on one of these benches.”
Commissioner Mike Sparkman echoed Keel’s thoughts and said the commission discussed the subject in 2001. However, at that time, a bus service was about to start in Plant City.
“It’s in the best interest of Plant City that the city cancel and discontinue the service of these benches,” he said.
The city’s agreement with Metropolitan Systems dates back to April 1978. Currently, there are 43 Metro benches within Plant City limits. At current advertising rates, city officials estimated the company was earning about $39,000 annually from ad revenue.
However, Metro representative Andrew Moos disagreed with that estimation and said ad revenue from the Plant City benches totals about $5,400 to $8,400, annually. He did not provide year-by-year revenue statements to the city.
Revenue from the bench advertising has benefited the Plant City Lions Club since 2001. Metro donated $1,200 annually from 2001 to May 2011. In June 2011, it increased that donation to $150 per month. In May 2013, it increased it to $250 per month.
Those donations would cease if the benches are removed.
“Obviously, it would hurt and would give us less money to pass back to the community,” said longtime Lion Coleman Davis.
However, Davis said he would support the will of his elected city leaders.
“Any dollar we do not receive will be missed,” he said. “But, I’m a team player, and whatever the City Commission thinks is best for the community is what I’m for.”
Contact Michael Eng at meng@plantcityobserver.com.
IN OTHER NEWS
• Walden Lake resident Shelly Orrico presented a petition with more than 300 signatures to the Plant City Commission. The petition asks that commissioners oppose any rezoning of the community’s golf courses and country club.
• The city has applied for a safety grant from the Florida Department of Transportation for crosswalk improvements on Cherry Street at HCC’s Plant City Campus. The city should know by mid-September whether it will receive the grant.
• Commissioners approved the condemnation of the property at 1504 Old Sydney Road.
