Naples builder covers cost of Charlie Kirk highway signs

After public backlash over Collier County’s decision to manufacture and install four Charlie Kirk Memorial Highway signs on Immokalee Road, a Naples builder stepped forward to reimburse the county for the cost.

The Board of County Commissioners on Dec. 9 unanimously accepted a $2,276.05 check from Phoenix Associates of Southwest Florida. County staff produced the signs in-house at the county sign shop and installed them Oct. 30, two days after commissioners voted 4-1 to create the memorial. Chair Burt Saunders cast the lone dissenting vote, saying commissioners should not pursue political, emotional or divisive actions outside the county’s mission.

The signs are part of a broader wave of memorials erected nationwide to honor Kirk, a controversial far-right activist, podcaster and co-founder of the conservative student group Turning Point USA. Kirk, 31, was shot and killed Sept. 10 while speaking at Utah Valley University in Orem.

At the Dec. 9 meeting, Commissioner Bill McDaniel Jr. said Randy Johns noticed the item on the agenda and praised commissioners for recognizing Kirk.

“Then some of the objections in the newspaper and so on came out that the cost associated with it was inappropriate, and he didn’t even know what the actual cost was when he said, ‘I’ll pay for the dang signs,’ ” McDaniel said.

Despite emotional opposition before and during the public hearing, the signs were installed along Immokalee Road between Oil Well Road and U.S. 41: just east of U.S. 41 on the eastbound side; just west of Juliet and Strand boulevards on the westbound side; east of Tarpon Bay Boulevard and Northbrooke Drive on the eastbound side; and just south of Oil Well Road on the westbound side.