When skate shop owner Andre Antoniou received a letter from the city of Bend’s code enforcement office at the end of February telling him he was displaying temporary signs without a permit, he responded the same way he said he and his neighbors have every year: by putting away his A-frame sign.

A few weeks later, the owner of Solsk8s was flabbergasted to receive a second letter from the city: This one said he had 10 days to remove the banners hanging on his building and fence or face a fine of at least $148,500 — $750 per banner per day.

It’s a hefty fee for the local skate shop, which had close to $175,000 in gross sales last year.

“We barely make $750 in a week,” Antoniou said.

Two of the banners have been up since Solsk8s opened on SE Ninth Street 3½ years ago, Antoniou said, and they haven’t been an issue in the past. He said the city didn’t make it clear that the banners were a problem.

“There’s no codes to look up to find out what you violated,” Antoniou said. “It never said signs on buildings, banners on the fence.”

The first letter SolSk8s received, a copy of which was provided to The Bulletin, cites Bend code 9.50.060, which includes a section that specifies businesses can display one banner with an area of up to 60 square feet. Businesses must obtain a temporary sign permit and can only display a banner for 60 days per year.

Antoniou said he plans to take the banners down before his Friday deadline and avoid any fines.

However, he’s not going to take down the skate ramp cover outside, despite a March 7 posted notice from the city ordering Solsk8s to stop working on it and a subsequent letter threatening a $750-per-day fine if the business didn’t apply for a work permit.

“The banners, not a big deal,” Antoniou said. “The cover, we’re making a political statement about.”

Solsk8s has a small set of ramps for customers out back, and it has had seasonal covers to protect some of the ramps and skaters from weather since it opened, Antoniou said. The current cover, which consists of clear plastic stretched over rounded poles and a modular wall that can close to keep snow from blowing in, was installed a few months ago by Green Leaf Garden Center.

Antoniou said the building code he’s being cited under shouldn’t apply because Solsk8s is in a part of town zoned for industrial use, and because the cover isn’t a building. He said phone calls and trips to Bend’s planning division haven’t helped.

“We’re fine to go through some hoops,” he said. “Not many because we don’t have much money.”

Along with being installed without a permit, the skate ramp cover is too close to the property line, said James Goff, Bend’s code enforcement manager. He said the city recognizes that business owners and residents often don’t know that they’re breaking city code, so his four-person department tries to do everything it can to educate lawbreakers instead of immediately punishing them.

“We’re reaching out to this business,” Goff said. “We’re giving them every chance to comply. They’re not following the same rules as everybody else.”

Code enforcement violations can start from city employees noticing something amiss or from complaints submitted by the public. The city doesn’t accept anonymous complaints, but it also doesn’t share any information about the complainant.

Enforcement starts with a letter telling building owners how to fix a problem and inviting them to contact the enforcement officer within 10 days with questions. If the problem isn’t fixed and the enforcement officer hasn’t heard anything within 10 days, owners receive a more strongly worded final notice letter detailing potential punishments.

Bend sent out about 2,400 initial notices last year, and maybe 200 or 300 resulted in final notices, Goff said. Nearly all of the code violations were resolved before the city had to issue citations, he said.

“When we’re dealing with a couple thousand cases and only had 1 percent go through court, I’d say we’re doing pretty well,” Goff said.

He believes Solsk8s, too, will comply with the code before the city has to issue fines.

“We’re very confident that we’re not going to have to issue a citation to this business next week,” Goff said.

— Reporter: 541-633-2160; jshumway@bendbulletin.com