CITY CONSIDERS "RIGHT TO LIFE" SIGN REQUEST
Wednesday, November 23rd, 2005 -- 11:45 AM
They?re only 2-feet by 4-feet, but there was a big debate at Tuesday's City Council meeting concerning signs at the Neillsville Skate Park.Clark County Right to Life has approached the city and requested permission to place a pro-abstinence sign among the around a dozen other signs displayed at the Skatepark.
The sign in question reads ?A man?s strength is in his character: Abstinence until marriage?, and it depicts a photograph of a man?s back and head, naked from the waste up, arms spread wide.
The signs currently hanging at the facility were created as part of a fundraising effort by the Neillsville Skatepark Committee.
As part of their fundraising effort, 60 donation requests were sent to area businesses and around a dozen to local service groups. For a donation of $500 or more, businesses were told, they?d be recognized with a sign at the Skatepark, which is adjacent to A & W on Highway 10.
Clark County Right to Life president Renee Schoen says they are willing to pay $500, they just want their displayed at the park; an area of high visibility for their target audience, area adolescents. But, she was told by a city worker City Attorney Bonnie Wacsmuth said the sign could not be displayed because it was religious in nature.
Right to Life is not a religious group, Schoen says.
Last night, Wacsmuth said the city needs to determine if the signs at the Skatepark are ?advertisements? or simply ?recognition? of a donation to the construction of the facility.
If they are recognition, Right to Life could donate and have a sign with their logo and name placed at the park, but the council wouldn?t have to allow the message.
If the council deems the signs advertisements, they may have to order the all the signs removed, as they were not specifically approved by the city. Then the Council would have to determine if advertising is to be allowed, in which case the city could not deny any advertising request, as long as they paid the set price.
?It?s sad that it has to come to this,? said Mayor Diane Murphy of the controversy. Adding it's frustrating for the many area residents who raised funds and built the popular facility.
After the meeting, Schoen told us she felt her group was being discriminated against by the city.
"I understand they're going throught the process of deciding whether or not advertising should be allowed, (but) I believe advertising is already being displayed there," Schoen said. "Yes, I do feel discriminated against. To a lot of people (the sign) seems to be religious or political, which it is neither."
Wendy Sigurdson and Marcia Gross helped lead the fundraising effort for the skatepark. Sigurdson say they've been ?caught off guard? by the controversy. Gross said the donations secured through the letter drive were important for the creation of the facility and were raised by the committee, not the city.
"The town has given so much money, we needed some more creative ideas as to how to raise funds," Gross explains. "The sign idea came up before we donated the park to the city. As far as coming to a City Council meeting, specifically if we could ask if we could put signs on a city park, it wasn't yet a city park."
"We weren't really thinking of ourselves as being a city park already," Gross said.
The issue will likely come before the City Council again during their December 13th meeting.
Feel free to contact us with questions and/or comments.