Innkeeper sues Arkansas town over sign ordinance

The Associated Press

10.25.99

Printer-friendly page

EUREKA SPRINGS, Ark. — A longtime innkeeper, irate over a new city ordinance banning motels and hotels from advertising room rates on outdoor signs, has taken the city to court.

John Thurman, owner of the Apple Blossom Inn, says the ordinance violates his freedom of speech and property rights.

"I started price signs here 30 years ago because we've always been a small motel," he said. "We should have the right to do what we want to do. They're not paying my note."

Thurman filed the lawsuit in Carroll County Chancery Court on Oct. 22, the day after the City Council passed the ordinance. He sued the city, Mayor Beau Satori and the Arkansas attorney general. He asked the court to declare the ordinance unconstitutional and to stop it from going into effect.

The ordinance is to take effect in 30 days from its passage, unless the injunction is issued.

City Councilman David Jeffrey, who has been a strong supporter of the ordinance, said the council passed the measure to address the detrimental effects of price wars among hotels and motels in the small tourist town. He says the price wars discourage tourists who make a hotel reservation at one rate then see a much lower rate advertised.

Jeffrey says many business owners don't want to compete with anything except low prices because they are "basically lazy."

"In the process, they're ruining everybody. It drags everybody down to the lowest common denominator," he said.