Business owner unhappy with new Ruler Foods sign

At least one business owner is concerned with the decision to give a variance to the area’s newest grocery store.

The new Ruler Foods store opening on 30th Street near the Dubois County Museum will be celebrating the new store opening with a ribbon-cutting planned for Thursday, May 14 at 10 a.m.

But, during a public hearing held Wednesday night, the Jasper Board of Zoning Appeals heard some concerns about the company’s request to place a new pylon sign on a parking lot owned by the Dubois County Museum.

John Kelley, director of Facility Engineering and Real Estate for JayC Food Stores, presented the request to place a 26 foot tall pylon sign with an 8-by-8 foot sign and additional message board to the northwest corner of the parking lot at the corner of U.S. 231/North Newton and 30th Street. Ruler Foods is set back off that corner but leased the extra parking adjacent to their own as part of the deal with the museum.

Jeff Tunks, who owns the Motorsports and Batteries Now located across the street from the museum, told the board that he felt the company had purchased the cheaper property located off the busy highway and was now “closing the barn door behind the horse” to get a sign along the road. Tunks stated that the board needed to consider the ordinance that disallowed a company from placing a sign off their own premise.

He stated that if the board set the precedence of allowing a company to place a sign on a property the company didn’t own, he could ask for the same consideration for his own business. “It gets to the point where you have to think, why have an ordinance if you’re not going to follow it,” he said. “If you don’t allow an off premises sign, you don’t allow it.”

He continued, “They (Ruler Foods) knew going in that they didn’t have highway frontage,” Tunks said. “Why give someone highway frontage because all of a sudden they are going to lease a parking lot. That is criminally wrong. That’s bad.”

Kelley told the board that the company had the lease and signage issue covered in the agreement with the museum. According to Kelley, Ruler Foods will lease the nearly half acre lot to expand their connected parking lot to the highway. “We did address that up front with the museum,” he said.

Zoning board member Randy Mehringer explained that in his view, the addition of the sign on the property being leased by Ruler was no different than if another business leasing property asked for a sign variance for their business.

Additionally, the property being leased by the grocery store will now be subject to property taxes. As part of the non-profit museum entity, no property taxes were paid on the property. According to Dubois County Museum Board President Jim Hagedorn, the museum had explored selling the property to Ruler Foods but found they were unable to do so due to the parking spaces needed to operate the museum. In the end, the museum decided to pursue a shared use lease with Ruler Foods. In completing the lease agreement, the museum split the property in a separate tax parcel.

The board approved the variance for the sign but with the lot being split from the museum, some new contingencies regarding the listing of the lot of record have to be cleared before a sign can be placed there.

The new store will employ 16 people and provided mainly Kroger-branded food items in the 19,000 square foot building.