Wisconsin County Seeks Compromise To Avoid Liability Over Monument

In Chippewa County, Wisconsin, officials are scrambling to come up with an acceptable compromise over feared church-state challenges to a monument that was put up on the grounds of the County Building. As reported by KBJR-TV, Business North and Chippewa Valley Newspapers, a private committee came up with plans for a monument to Chippewa County Deputy Jason Zunker who was struck and killed in January 2008 while directing traffic. The 3-panel monument includes a lengthy quote from Deputy Zunker exhorting individual to accept Jesus. The County Building and Grounds Committee approved the monument without knowing what would be on it and without further oversight. Last month the county told the memorial committee to remove the center panel of the monument containing the religious language. On Thursday, however, the county offered a compromise that would leave the panel up if the Jason Zunker Memorial Committee would accept liability in case a lawsuit was filed. One report says that under the compromise, the Memorial Committee would be responsible for all litigation; another says that the county would defend at trial but the Memorial Committee would be responsible for any appeal. Whichever it is, the Memorial Committee has until Oct. 1 to decide whether to accept the compromise.