HARTFORD, Conn. - Drivers along Connecticut highways might notice something a little different about newly erected Adopt-A-Highway signs: They bear the name of a small chain of adult boutiques.
LUV Boutique, a chain with stores in Milford and Hartford, petitioned to sponsor four of the signs just a year after Gov. M. Jodi Rell issued an executive order barring new contracts for billboards on state property.
Rell argued that billboards, particularly adult-themed ones, were "clutter" that ruined the state's "landscape and historic charm," the Hartford Courant reported.
"I found it kind of amazing after having come off this discussion about billboards and their appropriateness," Sen. Joan Hartley (D-Waterbury) told the newspaper. "I was completely stunned. At first, I wasn't quite sure what I was reading. We've got a lot of good and viable businesses in the state of Connecticut that we'd really love to be featuring before the LUV Boutique."
Hartley questioned transportation officials about the signs, and a spokesman for the Department of Transportation said the office evaluated the LUV Boutique's request to appear on the signs and "found no concerns that would warrant not allowing for the placement of the signs," the paper reported.
A spokesman from the governor's office told the newspaper that Rell sees a difference between her ban on billboards and the new LUV Boutique Adopt-A-Highway signs.
"The governor's primary goal in removing billboards was to beautify the state and keep inappropriate content off our most heavily traveled highways," Christopher Cooper said. "The adopt a highway program has strict guidelines on signage and what can be posted on them. These are guidelines the Department of Transportation ensures are followed."
