A church puts up a sign supporting the troops..sounds like no big deal right?
But in Nevada County, California, it is.
Standing 20 feet tall and 8 feet wide, this red, white, and blue sign along highway 49 in Nevada County says, “Support our troops, Nevada County is a very patriotic County, they love our troops.”
But the County’s issue with the sign according to Simple Truth Church is not what it actually says but it’s the physical sign itself.
Simple Truth Church put the sign up to show military support – thinking they would help the community by improving the sign which it says looked rather run-down before they redid it.
“It really looked terrible. It wasn’t kept up. The church added their logo sign. then we thought a support the troop sign in addition to it,” says a Nevada County resident.
County regulations state that no changes to an existing sign can occur without getting approval from the Nevada County planning department first.
“It actually didn’t have anything to do with what the signs says, what it has to do with is its out of compliance with county ordinance on signage,” says Simple Truth Church pastor, Jeff Alaways.
Freedom of speech? Yes.
Freedom of posting signs that don’t comply with County ordinances? Maybe not.