Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, May 11, 1995                   TAG: 9505110095
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: DAN CASEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

COMMISSIONER CRACKS CASE, AND IT'S A STICKY ONE

However, workers there have had their fill of flaky personal-property tax decals - a problem so sticky that the city has ordered a new batch from the manufacturer.

That means you may have to wait a little bit longer to get decals for your car, truck, motorcycle or trailer. By law, they have to be displayed on windshields by June 1.

"We've worked so hard to improve service to our customers that we just hate that this problem by the manufacturer has occurred," Commissioner of Revenue Marsha Compton Fielder said on Wednesday.

"The good news is that new decals are being reprinted ... and should arrive by late Thursday, May 25," she said.

The 100,000 stickers were printed by Rydin Sign & Decal of Wood Dale, Ill., the same company that printed them in 1992 and 1993. The order cost $8,000. The stickers went on sale April 17.

Shortly afterward, Fielder's office began getting complaints that the ink was flaking off when people peeled off the backing.

So many calls poured in that her office contacted Rydin, who looked into the matter.

It turns out that Rydin, whose decals were just fine in the past, bought a bad batch of white ink from another Illinois company, Acme Ink Co., said Pete Gianpetro, a Rydin vice president.

The white ink becomes unusually brittle after it dries, a problem that didn't show up in normal testing the company does before it prints the stickers, he said.

Thus, after the decals have been sitting around a few months, the white may peel off with the backing when it is being applied to a windshield. And it's taking some of the other colors with it, Gianpetro said.

Rydin has agreed to reprint the stickers at no charge. Meanwhile, Acme chemists are trying to figure out what went wrong and if their company is responsible, Gianpetro said.

What it means to you is this:

The city treasurer is not mailing bad stickers to people who've already mailed in their personal property tax. The new stickers will go in the mail on May 26, said Michelle Bono, a city spokeswoman. Most of them should arrive in motorists' mailboxes before the June 1 deadline.

In case a few don't get there in time, the city police will delay any aggressive decal enforcement campaign, she said. Still, she said, "you should get them on as quickly as you can."

If you pay the tax in person at the Municipal Building before May 26, you will be issued one of the old decals. In most cases, if you peel off the backing carefully and don't move it once it's on the windshield, there shouldn't be any problem. But you can exchange it after May 25 if it flakes.

If you've already got your decals and they aren't flaking, you can simply leave them on your car. But if you want new ones, you can get them by turning in your old stickers.