Belmar, N.J. ? Roll up to an intersection in many places and the sign you see might not only tell you to stop, yield or turn in a certain direction, it might also feature unwanted ads for a taco joint, surf shop, miracle diet, a political candidate, or urge tourists to go home.

From the boardwalks of the New Jersey shore to the desert metropolises of Arizona and West Texas and the drizzle of Oregon, street signs, utility poles and private property are often covered with advertising stickers.

They can pose a pricey dilemma for towns: either spend thousands of dollars scraping them off, or leave them where they are and risk projecting what some officials consider a run-down, shabby appearance.

“You want to put them on your skateboard, fine,” said Belmar Mayor Ken Pringle, whose Jersey shore town is plastered with stickers for surf shops and one particular taco restaurant. “But when you put them on private property, that’s vandalism.”

Pringle said he has peeled off hundreds of stickers from street signs, lamp poles and boardwalk railings — all public property.

A lawyer, Pringle has considered enacting a law to hold the business owners accountable for removing the stickers, or hit them with a fine if they fail to do so within a certain period. But he’s hamstrung with potential First Amendment issues, not to mention a costly legal challenge to a law that holds one entity responsible for something that someone else might have done.