WEST CHESTER, OH (FOX19) - <\/p>\n
The Twelfth District Court of Appeals heard arguments from Liberty Tax Services on Monday. The company claims West Chester Township is limiting its freedom of commercial speech. <\/p>\n
The West Chester Board of Zoning Appeals won't allow Liberty Tax Services to use its Lady Liberty waver to advertise. The Butler County Court of Common Pleas has also rules against the use of the waver. <\/p>\n
In our commitment to balanced news, here are both sides of the issue. Liberty Tax Services say not being able to use the Lady Liberty Advertising hurts business and is a violation of its commercial speech rights. On the flip side, officials with West Chester Township say this type of character signage is prohibited by the township's zoning guidelines. <\/p>\n
In many cities that surround West Chester, you can find Lady Liberty dancing and twirling signs, but in West Chester it's not allowed and Liberty Tax is putting up a fight. <\/p>\n
\"The wavers job is to get out there, have fun and make eye contact, make that personal connection so people know where we are at,\" said Liberty Tax Service franchise owner Jack Vyhnalek. He says the Lady Liberty advertising accounts for a third of the company's business. <\/p>\n
The West Chester location opened in 2010 and from the start wasn't allowed to have a waver. The township's zoning resolution states, \"signs which employ any parts or elements which revolve, rotate, whirl, spin or otherwise make use of motion to attract attention, other than electronic message boards are prohibited.\" <\/p>\n
\"We're not going to have trash out here, we are not going to do things that are inappropriate. We simply want a person. We want to employ people in the community, we'll employ five or ten wavers, because of the increased business we'll have more tax people from the community,\" said Vyhnalek. <\/p>\n
Liberty Tax officials say they have dealt with this type of situation before and are normally successful in the court of appeals. It could be several weeks before we know what the court decides. <\/p>\n
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Debate surrounds Lady Liberty in West Chester<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" WEST CHESTER, OH (FOX19) - The Twelfth District Court of Appeals heard arguments from Liberty Tax Services on Monday. The company claims West Chester Township is limiting its freedom of commercial speech. The West Chester Board of Zoning Appeals won't allow Liberty Tax Services to use its Lady Liberty waver to advertise Continue reading