Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, May 26, 1995 TAG: 9505260072
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: DAN CASEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Short
A sticky problem plaguing personal property tax decals in Roanoke has been resolved, meaning city residents now can get unflaky stickers for their cars and trucks.
A total of 9,000 newly printed decals arrived at City Hall on Wednesday, and another 81,000 came in on Thursday, said Michelle Bono, a city spokeswoman.
The new decals replace an old batch that arrived in April. Brittle ink used in the old batch caused the image on many of the stickers to flake off when motorists peeled off the backing to apply the stickers to their windshields.
The new stickers were reprinted at no cost by Rydin Sign & Decal of Wood Dale, Ill., the company that printed the bad batch.
City decals also are a lighter blue this year. That's because Roanoke Valley governments are trying to develop a uniform color scheme for personal property tax stickers.
The city didn't want the same color this year as last year because police officers wouldn't be able to tell them apart readily, Bono said.
Police officers throughout the valley may ticket a car that doesn't have an up-to-date sticker, no matter what locality the car is from. New stickers are supposed to be on cars by June 1.
But partly because of the snafu with the flaking ink and delays in issuing Roanoke decals, police in all the jurisdictions have agreed not to enforce the sticker law until mid-June.
Memo: NOTE: Shorter version ran in Metro edition.