Washington County has scrapped its plans to rename a portion of a local highway “Charlie Kirk Way.”
Why?
“As Washington County has contemplated the renaming of a highway, we have learned that the actual cost is substantially higher than first known,” County Board Chair Jeffrey Schleif said on March 27.
“While we wish the process had gone smoother, this matter is no longer under consideration.”
Charlie Kirk was brutally assassinated while peacefully exercising his free speech rights on a college campus.
Although streets have commonly been named for civil rights figures who don’t have local ties in other communities for decades, a crowd of angry people showed up to complain about the proposal, which was originally supposed to cost $50,000. Officials later said they would fund it with private donations, but they have now scrapped the proposal completely.
Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point organization has been very active in Wisconsin in recent years.
The renamed signs would have spanned an area of Highway K between County Road R and State Highway 144.
