Ban on teen’s sign opens can of worms

CROMWELL, Conn. – For the past three summers, 13-year-old Joey Cadieux has headed outside with his flashlight on rainy nights to collect nightcrawlers from his yard.

Purchased by passing fishermen for $2.50 a dozen, the wriggling worms brought him $7 to $10 in a good month, just enough for bike trips to his favorite neighborhood pizza joint.

But when a town official recently objected to his stenciled black-and-white “nite crawlers” yard sign, Joey’s business got the hook.

The move has set off a flurry of protests from residents of this suburban central Connecticut town who have been calling and e-mailing officials to stick up for the budding entrepreneur.

Joey, a quiet teen who starts high school in a few weeks, is uncomfortable with the controversy and just wants to start earning some pizza money again.

“It’s so weird,” he said. “I only make a few bucks a month if I’m lucky. I don’t know why it’s a big deal.”

The brouhaha started in July when Al Diaz, a town Planning and Zoning Commission member, mentioned during a meeting that the sign did not conform with Cromwell’s rules and should come down. A town zoning officer sent a letter last month ordering Joey’s stepfather, August Reil, to take down the sign and stop selling nightcrawlers.

“I actually laughed when I opened it. I couldn’t believe they were serious,” Reil said.

But they are. If Joey’s sign, now hidden from passing motorists, goes back up, the family could face penalties for violating town zoning rules.

“In a residential zone, if you want to put up a business and work out of your home you really need a special permit,” Diaz told the Hartford Courant in a story published Friday. “You come before the commission and state your case … and then a decision is made.”

However, in an interview with the Associated Press on Friday, Diaz said that other town officials overreacted to his inquiry and that he will ask the board to rescind the order when it meets again in September.

That would let Joey sell the worms again, but if the sign is illegal, he might have to find other ways to reach his audience.

“I had no idea there was a 13-year-old kid there,” Diaz said. “I certainly don’t want to put a kid out of business. I never intended that at all.”

Meanwhile, however, the ban remains in effect.