Call it a sign of the times. Once unobtrusive oddities, mainstays along Route 1 and Maine’s other tourist highways, are running into a new sense of propriety that threatens some of the charming kitsch that makes the state attractive to out-of-staters and locals alike.

Take, for example, The Hot Dog Lady: one Kit Schultze who has been running a hot dog stand at the intersection of routes 11 and 109 in Shapleigh.

Schultze, 26, operates an ole-timey cart from behind a vintage Ford pickup near the only public beach on Mousam Lake. She’s been doing it for about 11 years and has made a name for herself with her particular style of business wear – a bikini. Why not? She does work at the beach.

Shapleigh’s Board of Selectmen has decided that the cart poses a threat to public safety by being on the side of a busy road. According to Bill Nemitz, who reported the struggle Sunday in the Maine Sunday Telegram, there may be more to it than traffic control. It seems some members of the community have had enough of the young and good-looking Schultze selling hotdogs to their husbands and boyfriends while she’s dressed in a bikini.

The selectmen took the issue to the Maine Department of Transportation, trying to get the department to enforce a parking ban on the side of the street. They would prefer that the hot dog cart move across the intersection to an unpaved parking lot. Schultze, however, told Nemitz she thinks the move would put people at risk, especially kids rushing across the intersection to get a snack.

Tonight, Schultze is scheduled to sit down with selectmen and try to work out some sort of solution. The Hot Dog Lady has plenty of support. Her customers have rallied to her side, gathering signatures on a petition in support of her business and its location.

While Schultze says there haven’t been any serious accidents near her stand in more than a decade there, we’re in no position to judge for sure whether she’s a hazard, though we’re skeptical. In the end, she’ll have to deal with bureaucratic rule making just like any other small business, fair or not.

But the dispute is an example of the changing nature of the state.

Part of Maine’s allure is its independent, entrepreneurial nature – the roadside stands and attractions that lure tourists off the road for a short detour on their way up the coast or toward the mountains. Maybe it’s artwork out of old bed frames or a thousand bicycles arrayed around the yard or a self-serve fruit stand, the roads are dotted with little enterprises. As the state grows up, as neighborhoods and communities demand zoning, as the traffic and crowds get so large that the unusual creates troubles, we lose a little of the mystique that cements Maine vacations into the minds of young and old alike.

Call it progress – which in many cases it surely is. Call it a sign of the times. Call it whatever. We’d call it a shame if The Hot Dog Lady becomes its next victim.