CRESTVIEW HILLS, Ky. -- Paul Meier has been mayor of Crestview Hills, Kentucky, for 14 years. In all of that time, he said, he has never seen a city council meeting as well-attended as the one held Thursday night.
The large citizen turnout was the byproduct of a controversial yard display on College Park Drive. Weeks ago, Kenneth Blair decided to hang an effigy of Trump outside his home alongside signs labeling him "a spy & traitor," upside-down American flags and a banner quoting his comments about "grabbing" women.
Blair doesn’t consider it inappropriate or over-the-top -- he called it "a message that needs to be sent" -- but many of his neighbors and fellow residents do.
"I don’t care if it was a cat or a dog -- it doesn’t matter,” said John Horton, who added that he doesn’t think his 6-year-old son should have to see such explicit images. "You don’t put a thing hanging on your house by a noose."
Horton and others believed that Blair could be penalized for the display on the basic of city ordinances -- zoning laws, they said, ought to say that it was too big and therefore Blair could be fined for putting it up.
However, Mayor Meier saw it differently. A single large sign would mean trouble, but because the display comprises several smaller pieces -- the effigy, the flags and the banner -- he said the decorations fell within the borders of legality and Blair could not be fined.
"This matter’s closed," he said. "If another situation arises, it will be put before us in due course."
That decision was not, however, an endorsement of the display. Meier said that, if he received more complaints about it, he would consider taking the case to the country attorney.
