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Schaumburg considers limits for roadside memorials

Roadside memorials often follow in the wake of suburban traffic fatalities, but regulation of them is rare throughout the region.

In fact, Schaumburg trustees Tuesday discussed the possibility of their village becoming only the second in the Northwest suburbs to have any rules at all.

"Most other villages, other than Mount Prospect, don't do anything unless the family takes it away or it blows away," Schaumburg Trustee Marge Connelly said.

After much discussion and debate of a proposed ordinance, Schaumburg trustees opted to recommend a 90-day time limit on such memorials for the time being.

When that time expires, if loved ones have still not collected items from the site of the memorial, village officials would take them to store at the public works department for up to six months before disposing of them.

Mount Prospect's policy, established in April 2012, also calls for a 90-day limit.

Still under discussion in Schaumburg, though, are the specifics of how large any memorial display can be.

While some trustees thought the proposed ordinance was specific enough in leaving it to village inspectors to decide if a memorial was causing any visibility or safety risks along a roadway, Mayor Al Larson was among those who believed that to be too subjective.

But Connelly argued that a universal policy on a memorial's size would be difficult, as each specific site along a roadway would determine how much space was appropriate for a display.

Resident Pat Malcor brought her concerns to the village last spring about allowing such memorials to remain too long.

"To me, my issue is let's put a limit to how long these memorials stay," Malcor said. "I don't see a tattered flag as being very attentive."

But Malcor also argued that the village shouldn't put too much pressure too early on grieving families about the 90-day limit. In many cases, it's friends and acquaintances of the deceased who are assembling these memorials, not the families, she said.

Trustees ultimately opted against establishing a program for commemorative plaques at fatal accident sites - even if family members paid for them.

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