Defaced billboard sends wrong message, removed today

COURTESY: ANNICK JOSEPH (KIEM)

FERNDALE, Calif. (KIEM)-A billboard designed to welcome all visitors, sent a different message after the sign was vandalized sometime around Christmas Day.

The sign that read “Welcome to Ferndale Hate has No Home Here” – was changed to – “Hate Has A Home Here.”

An initial call came into the Ferndale Police Department, on or around Christmas Day, according Police Chief Ron Sligh, the billboard was taken down this Tuesday morning.

Redwood news reached out to the President of Ferndale’s Chamber of Commerce Thomas Nicholson Stratton for comment.

In a statement Nicholson Stratton said, “Ferndale is home to a loving and welcoming community. All communities, large and small, in this nation, have work to do in social equality and ours is no different. Vandalism is not the appropriate way of approaching the topic.”

Ferndale’s police chief says, the sign was just outside the city limits, the case was handed over to the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office.  

“I did see the damage when I came into work, in the morning, and then I did notice today that billboard has been removed. It’s sad that, that kind of thing happens, obviously it is something that we are looking to prevent, even a property that’s adjacent to the city.”

Anyone with information about the crime can contact the Ferndale Police Department at (707) 786-4225 the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office at (707) 445-7251, you can remain anonymous.

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