California church told to remove 'Support Our Troops' sign

A church in Nevada County, California may have to remove a red, white and blue “Support Our Troops” sign because it didn’t have county approval to put it up.

The 20-foot-tall sign reads, “Support our troops, Nevada County is a very patriotic County, they love our troops.”

The church put up the patriotic sign to help cover a rundown billboard but Simple Truth didn’t get approval first.

“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,” said a Nevada County resident.

Nevada County regulations state that no changes to an existing sign can occur without getting a permit from the 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,” said Simple Truth pastor Jeff Alaways.

The church is hoping to avoid taking the sign down for as long as possible and Simple Truth will meet with the county sometime next week.

“It’s a little surprising. All we meant to do was beautify the area, the corner, and it’s a reminder for me -- for everyone that drives by -- to pray for the troops,” said church member Julia Stokes. “People just drive by and love it. There have been four new people come to our church because of that sign.”

“If we don’t do anything, they may come out and cut the sign down. And, we would have to pay for them to cut the sign down, which seems to be pretty harsh,” said Julia’s husband, Bill. “Why would you knock something that has an America flag on it that says ‘Support Our Troops?’ I have no idea; I really don’t.”

[Fox 43] [CBS Sacramento]