Democratic Town Council Candidate Says Campaign Signs Are Missing

The daunting task of running against two longtime town councilmen got harder for Democratic hopeful Howard Knispel as the candidate said many of his campaign signs went missing over the weekend.

The missing signs, according to Knispel, were located along Route 347 where the road splits with Jericho Turnpike, and on Route 25. Knispel also said only the cardboard signs were removed, not the metal that keeps them in the ground.

“Saturday night I was driving and I saw my signs, Sunday morning when I was on my way to St. James Day the signs were missing,” Knispel said.

Knispel said because the signs were removed overnight and how only the cardboard sign itself was taken that he didn’t believe they were removed by Smithtown’s Department of Highways or the state Department of Transportation.

Superintendent of Highways Glenn Jorgensen was unavailable for comment by time of publication.

Knispel said the sign he asked and was given permission to place in front of his longtime dry cleaner, Dit Cleaners, located at 555 Veterans Highway in Hauppauge, was also removed. As with the others, just the cardboard sign was removed, not the metal placeholder.

The owner of Dit Cleaners could not be reached for comment.

The Democratic town council candidate said he does not believe his opponents were responsible for the sign removal and would not speculate on who could have removed them.

Knispel also said that while he won’t speculate on who removed his signs, the people need to know who all the candidates running for town council are, and removing the signs doesn’t allow that to happen.

“We have a two-party system basically and we have a one party government in Smithtown right now. People have the right to know who the opposition is, who the candidates from both parties are … [if] people aren’t aware of who the candidates are then they’re not going to be informed when they go into the voting booth, and that’s not the way our system is supposed to work,” he said.