No government-funded signs will advertise the Ku Klux Klan in Anne Arundel County.

County Executive Janet S. Owens canceled yesterday the county's Adopt-A-Road program to prevent the Klan from receiving credit on county signs for volunteering for the roadside cleanup program.

Her decision ends the threat of a suit from the American Civil Liberties Union, which said last month that the county would violate the Klan's right to free speech if it denied the group's recent application to join the program.

Owens said she does not want the county to pay expensive legal fees if the government were to lose a court fight with the group.

Anne Arundel County workers will begin today removing the 52 Adopt-A-Road signs that proclaim the names of 26 volunteer groups that have been cleaning 26 of the county's 16,074 miles of roads for the past three years.

Owens said yesterday that she hopes the organizations will continue to clean their communities without the public recognition that comes with the Adopt-A-Road signs bearing the groups' names. At least two church groups have pledged to do so.

"I will not allow the KKK, or any other group whose sole intent is to politicize our roadways, to gain a foothold in this county," said Owens. "This request has distorted the very good intentions of an anti-litter program."

A small but growing number of local governments in the United States have been fighting legal battles over the Klan's attempts to polish its image by adopting roads. An Arkansas federal court ruled in 1992 that governments cannot keep unpopular groups out of cleanup programs.

Owens said that in other places where Adopt-A-Road signs have been raised with the Klan's name -- including Arkansas, Texas and Florida -- Klan detractors have thrown trash alongside the roads.

Owens said she would not allow that to happen to Gambrills Road, an Annapolis area Klansman wanted to adopt.

NAACP applauds move

Gerald Stansbury, president of the Anne Arundel County chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, praised Owens for taking a hard line against the Klan.

"This sends a message that the Klan doesn't have any place in Anne Arundel County," Stansbury said.

Dwight H. Sullivan, managing attorney for the Baltimore office of the American Civil Liberties Union, said Owens has a legal right to cancel the program.

But he said her move sets a "troublesome" precedent, creating the possibility that the Klan could shut down public athletic leagues by planning to sponsor teams and put its name on T-shirts.

"This gives the Klan a tremendous amount of power, to allow them to shut down a county program," Sullivan said. "We generally say in the United States that the best remedy for bad speech is more speech."

Volunteers opposed

Volunteers who have taken part in the Adopt-A-Road program say they strongly oppose cancellation of the program.

However, John Purgason, a coordinator of the St. Margaret's Episcopal Youth Group Adopt-A-Road team, said the group plans to continue cleaning Bay Dale Road near Arnold.

"The church kids love it because it beautifies the road near our church," said Purgason. "Neighbors love it so much, they honk and wave whenever we're out there."

Donna Mullis, coordinator of an Adopt-A-Road group at Heritage Church of God in Severn, said yesterday that her group's members plan to hold an April 17 cleanup along Quarterfield Road.

"We have decided to keep cleaning up the road anyway, even without a sign," said Mullis. "We weren't doing it for the recognition anyway."

'Childish and immature'

The Klan was less than enthusiastic about the idea of cleaning up Gambrills Road without a sign to give it credit.

Roger Kelly, a Frederick County resident who is Imperial Wizard of the KKK branch that includes the Anne Arundel County group, said yesterday that cleaning the road without the advertisement is not on the group's immediate agenda.

"We've got other irons in the fire, if you know what I mean -- other things we're working on," Kelly said.

Kelly said he thought Owens' cancellation of the program was "childish and immature."

Owens said she took that remark as a "badge of honor."

The Klan is believed to have fewer than 15 members in the county, said Sgt. Michael Dudeck of the state police. Different branches of the group have held two rallies at the State House in Annapolis during the past decade and passed out fliers to motorists.

Pub Date: 3/31/99