(Copied directly from News Release issued by Yazel)

Yazel Places Bounty on Tulsa Mess
 
Tulsa, OK, July 29, 2010 - Tulsa County Assessor Ken Yazel made arrangements Wednesday with the Tulsa County Republican office to coordinate an effort to clean up thousands of campaign signs on Tulsa street corners, highways and lots. Many still remain left over from Tuesday's election. Yazel and his volunteer team were out early on Wednesday morning, recycling his signs. He is encouraging other candidates to do the same. In fact, Ken Yazel is willing to put his money where his mouth is, placing a bounty on uncollected signs that remain on our littered roads. $ .25 for Yazel signs, and $ .10 for signs belonging to other campaigns.
 
Yazel said Wednesday:
 
"We had a record number of candidates participating in our Primary Elections this year. That's encouraging to me, especially considering how many young people are involved this time around. Unfortunately, our street corners were so congested with signs, it looked tacky. I'd hate to see citizens become irritated with the election process, and we all know that our city and county employees are too busy to worry about clutter on the side of our roads.
 
My team put out thousands of signs, and I am just as responsible as everyone else for the mess. We're committed to do our part of the clean up, but I didn't feel right about us grabbing just my signs and leaving others behind when we could easily get the others too. I've seen others out doing the same thing, and it I think we can get them up quickly when we work together. The question has always been what to do with everyone else's signs. Let's just collect them at one depot location, sort them out and recycle what's left over. It's not a Yazel solution, or a Republican vs. Democrat solution. It's a Tulsa solution."
 
The Ken Yazel for Tulsa County Assessor campaign says all campaign signs will be accepted, regardless of their condition. They would like receive back, in good shape, as many as possible that can be re-used again in the General Election by various campaigns. However, the main goal is the clean up effort right now. All signs will be bought back at the same respective rates.
 
Yazel said of the cost, "I am confident that other campaigns will chip in on the expense, but it's not required. I know this may cost me several hundred dollars, but it will be worth the investment. The county gets cleaned up, and we all have to purchase more signs for November anyway. Why not recycle the ones that are still around town?
 
It will be good for anyone who wants to make some extra money, too. A few young people can go driving around for an hour or two and collect a few hundred signs if they know where to look. $50 to $100 isn't bad for an hour or two of work. I can think of a few students from our Young Marines program who might go out all day and stick it to me!"
 
Here are the details to Ken Yazel's proposal for cleaning up the clutter of these signs and recycling them:
 
1. Ken Yazel is putting a bounty on all remaining campaign signs that can be collected from the street corners, vacant lots, and highways. He will buy them back at a rate of:
 
25 cents for each Ken Yazel sign, and 10 cents for every other candidate's sign.
 
2. They can be dropped off at the GOP headquarters (Back parking lot of Shadow Mountain Center on 58th and Memorial) on Saturday at 2pm. Collectors can fill out a form with mailing address and other contact info. They will receive a check in the mail the following week.
 
3. We will ask other campaigns to come get them that day. If they would like to reimburse Ken for what he paid to collect their signs, that would be good. If not, so be it.
We will arrange for a service to come by and recycle the metal frames, plastic and/or paper of the unclaimed signs and materials. 
 
- Ken Yazel is running for re-election as Tulsa's County Assessor. He is a lecturer on "How to lower county taxes" and a former licensed CPA, business owner/CEO and a retired Marine Corps Major (1962 thru 1982).

 
Special thanks to the Tulsa County Republican Party for assisting with this effort!