A Villager is irritated that an uplifting sign in her yard was the subject of an anonymous complaint.
Leticia Benasutti of the Merry Oak Villas in the Village of Calumet Grove put a sign in her yard that encouraged those who saw it to put, “Faith Over Fear.” She thought she was taking a positive step in offering encouragement in these uncertain times.
However, she received the dreaded knock on the door and learned her sign had been the subject of an anonymous complaint to Community Standards.
She was flabbergasted.
“Last we checked, this is a free country and we are free to express our beliefs. We are prayerful that the reason this complaint was filed was because they just did not like the sign and not that it is some unhappy, non-believer who hates the world and does not like our Christian beliefs,” Benasutti wrote in a letter to the Community Development District 4 Board of Supervisors.
She probed a little deeper and learned that she was unaware of the board’s recent change in its sign policy.
Benasutti said the change in policy, which calls for the enforcement of the long-dormant prohibition on signs, caught her off guard. She was told the discussion of the policy change was advertised in The Villages Daily Sun and posted at the mail stations.
“What if a resident does not subscribe to the newspaper and if he/she cannot make it to the mailbox station?” she asked.
Benasutti contends that when proposed changes are to be discussed, residents should be notified by mail.
It’s not the only thing she wants in writing.
“We await your written notification for us to remove our sign from the front of our home,” she said in her letter.