BIDDEFORD — Late Monday morning a young woman battled the howling wind and heavy snow to stand on a traffic median in the Five Points intersection. She was holding a cardboard sign that asked drivers if they could spare any change.

City officials said Monday that they hope to put an end to practices like thesein the future, though, citing safety concerns for both the people who choose to stand in the intersections and the motorists who pass through.

Early last year, the U.S. District Court in Maine ruled that a Portland ordinance banning panhandlers on traffic medianswas unconstitutional, and the decision stymied talks of a similar ordinance being passed in Biddeford.

But Portland appealed that ruling, and last Friday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in Boston heard the arguments for that case. Now Biddeford officials are keeping their eyes peeled in anticipation of the higher court’s decision.

“If they overturn (the lower court’s ruling), we have an ordinance ready to go,” said City Council President John McCurry.

But even if the appeals court upholds the federal court’s ruling that Portland’s ordinance was unconstitutional, that doesn’t mean Biddeford won’t pursue a ban of its own, said McCurry.

The key difference between the two cities, he said, is that in Portland there are no restrictions on placing political campaign signs or other advertisements in medians, and because of this, the U.S. District Court considered the city’s ban of panhandlers and their signs in medians to be a “content-based restriction on free speech,” according to court documents.

The only type of sign Biddeford allows in its medians, on the other hand, are street signs, said McCurry. So if an ordinance were passed here to keep panhandlers off of medians, he said, a court couldn’t argue that the city was attempting to stifle certain kinds of speech there, while allowing others.

In the eyes of Biddeford officials, the issue has nothing to do with free speech and everything to do with public safety.

“I don’t have a problem with people panhandling on the side of the road,” said McCurry. “My biggest concern is that if it’s in the median, on certain areas where it’s narrow, they’re putting their lives in jeopardy, or they could cause an accident.”

Mayor Alan Casavant echoed McCurry’s opinion, adding that these safety concerns intensify during the winter months.

“There are certain medians in the city that are extremely narrow and slippery, especially in the winter time,” said Casavant.

On the national scene, the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to decide very soon if it will hear a case challenging a 2-year-old Worcester, Massachusetts, law that restricts panhandling on medians. Casavant said Biddeford will also be watching to see how that plays out.

In the meantime, however, city officials simply remain concerned over possibly fatal repercussions of no-holds-barred medians.

“I know we need to do something,” McCurry concluded. “I think there’s going to be an accident … I’m worried for these people.”

— Staff Writer Angelo J. Verzoni can be contacted at 282-1535, ext. 329 or averzoni@journaltribune.com.