It's taken many years, but it looks like Harford County finally has a good plan for dealing with those illegal commercial signs that litter roadsides and median strips throughout the county: volunteer sign removal crews.

Meanwhile, the state law prohibiting the signs, which amount to little more than litter, has been strengthened and the new version goes into effect this weekend.

Technically, putting signs in public rights of way like median strips has never been allowed, something to which any law-abiding citizen who has applied for and received a sign permit could attest. The signs proliferate, however, because they're relatively cheap and the details of the laws banning them often have been vague.

Years back, operations that wanted such signs erected would make the necessary arrangements through a third-party contractor who would make the appropriate arrangements. This made figuring out who was the law-breaking party in the sign postings something of a game. Was it the person being paid to post the signs, the contractor or the company whose business benefited from the signs?

It even degenerated to a point that county officials had something of a wink and nod agreement with certain sign posters that the illegal signs would be put up only on the weekends and removed promptly before the work week started.

Those days are long gone, but the sign problem has metastasized. They're as much a part of the scenery as landscaping, but unlike landscaping, they give the community the feel of a rundown neighborhood in a third world country.

The state law that goes into effect Saturday will allow for a fine of as much as $25 to be levied against those who post signs in state rights of way. This probably isn't going to do much about the problem. No doubt the same kinds of legal shenanigans as were used to confound the system a few years back can be employed now by those who benefit from illegal signs.

Volunteer sign collection patrols, though, is an idea with some merit.

Fittingly enough, the county program is modeled after the anti-litter State Highway Administration Adopt-A-Highway program. The only difference, it seems, instead of picking up litter carelessly tossed away by miscreants, the sign patrols will be picking up litter carefully, but just as illegally, put into place by different kinds of miscreants. Those interested in signing up are strongly encouraged to call 410-638-3101.

As for the state's updated roadside sign law, it would do well to reconsider the fine and bump it up at least to the level of fines levied against more traditional litterers, which is somewhere in the $250 range.