Nazi Party Road Signs In Marion Co. Draw Ire

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Nazi Party Road Signs In Marion Co. Draw Ire
kgw.com and AP Staff
January 28, 2005

SALEM - Angry Marion County residents are complaining about a decision to allow the American Nazi Party to participate in the "Adopt-a-Highway" cleanup program, but county officials defended their action Thursday saying they had no choice.

The complaints started Monday after two green signs went up along rural Sunnyview Road recognizing the Nazi Party’s commitment to keeping the road clean by regularly picking up litter and other debris.

The two signs, erected by Marion County road crews, cost taxpayers $250 each.

"Was there nothing that could be done to keep this sign from coming up?" asked Jackie Bryant, one resident who found the road signs objectionable. "Could they not find any way around it?"

"I know we live in a free world. But that’s not part of freedom, anything to do with the Nazis," said Barbara Hamblin, a 64-year-old who lives in a mobile home park just down the road from one of the signs.

"They had to have been off their rocker," she added.

County commissioners said they know people are upset; they even considered whether to cancel the "Adopt-a-Highway" program because of the controversy.

All participants in the cleanup program are allowed to have their group’s name appear on road signs and officials said placing a specific restriction on displaying the Nazi Party’s name would violate constitutional protections for free speech.

"There is freedom of speech," said Jim Sears of Marion County’s Public Works Dept. "The Court ruled for the KKK with the state of MIssouri, allowing a sign up."

Sears referred to a U.S. Supreme Court decision earlier this month that prevented Missouri from barring the Klan from participating in that state’s Adopt-A-Highway program due to free-speech rights.

"Our hands are pretty much tied from a legal standpoint," explained Marion County Commissioner Patti Milne. "This has been very difficult, but the bottom line is they are entitled to participate."

"We can’t pick and choose what parts of the constitution to follow," said Milne, a former Republican state legislator.

The American Nazi Party spokesperson, C. Marchand of Keizer, whose name is listed on the highway cleanup program permit declined comment on the complaints.

He referred inquiries to Jim Ramm, leader of the Tualatin Valley Skins, a white-supremacist group that has been active in the Willamette Valley. Ramm could not be reached.

The Web site for the American Nazi Party lists as its chairman Rocky J. Suhayda.

Responding to an e-mail, Suhayda said his group has nothing to do with the two road signs in Marion County, writing, in part: "We would never pick up garbage along a highway in this toilet-bowl of a country."

County leaders said they had received at least a dozen complaints as of Thursday afternoon, and more continued coming in since the existence of the signs was first broadcast on KGW Northwest NewsChannel 8 Wednesday night.

Meanwhile, out on Sunnyview Road, someone expressed their views about the two signs by bending one of them in half.

The sign is near a house where Patti Buetler lives, practically in her yard.

Buetler said she too had called county officials about the sign: "I don’t want to get myself involved in this. All I want is for it to not be in my yard," she said.

Buetler may get her wish since county leaders said the vandalized sign will only be replaced if the permit holder pays for a new one.

"If they want to replace it, the Nazi Party will have to pay," said Dan Estes, spokesman for the county commissioners.

He said that is standard policy - the county erects the signs at its expense the first time but charges organizations to replace them if they are vandalized or stolen.

On the second road sign, someone Thursday had attached a note below the words "American Nazi Party" that read "only picks up white trash."

(KGW reporters Kylke Iboshi and Nicole Doll contributed to this report.)