Several major roads leading into JD Vance’s hometown will soon be stamped with his name.
The city of Middletown is set to acknowledge the vice president-elect with seven street signs in the days or weeks following the inauguration on Jan. 20, city spokesperson Clayton Castle told The Enquirer on Tuesday. The signs will read “Hometown of J.D. Vance, 50th Vice President of the United States of America” and will go up at these locations:
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Central Avenue and Carmody Boulevard.
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Ohio Route 4 and Germantown Road, near the Middletown Regional Airport.
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Ohio Route 73 at the Middletown city limits.
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Ohio Route 122 and Interstate 75.
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Ohio Route 4 and Lafayette Avenue.
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South Main Street at the city limits.
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Cincinnati-Dayton Road at the city limits.
The signs will be made by Middletown’s public works department with materials already on hand, so there won’t be an additional cost to make the signs, Castle said. A proof of the signs sent to The Enquirer shows they will be white signs with black letters.
JD Vance grew up in Middletown, Ohio. The city will soon put up signs acknowledging him on several major roads.
Vance’s mother Beverly Aikins, who lives in Middletown, asked the city to acknowledge her son at a city council meeting in December.
“I am just here because I am JD Vance’s mother and as you know he is our new vice president-elect and he thinks of Middletown as his home,” Aikins said during the meeting’s public comment. “I still live here and his sister still lives in Middletown. He’s got two nieces who live here and I just think it would be really nice if we could acknowledge that this is his hometown and put up some signs.”
“He graduated from Middletown High School,” she added. “He comes back here frequently to visit me and take me to dinner, and I humbly request that.”
City council clashed over JD Vance signs
Some residents spoke up during the December meeting in favor of the signs, but the city council was divided. Councilman Paul Lolli agreed there should be a sign or street named after Vance and Councilman Steve West said it was “unacceptable” that Vance hadn’t been publicly recognized since winning the election.
Councilwoman Jennifer Carter, who previously told The Enquirer she doesn’t like Vance’s polices, was against putting up signs.
“If he gets into office and creates havoc, with him and Trump sending people out of the country… all of the things they said they wanted to do. If all of these things happen, we’re still saying, ‘Yay?'” she said during the meeting.
Councilman Paul Horn agreed with recognizing Vance as a Middletown native, but said signs can be removed “when people screw up.”
The Enquirer a month ago submitted a public records request for emails about the signs from city council, but has not yet received those records.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: JD Vance road signs to go up in his Ohio hometown after council clash