Anyone driving west on Route 581 outside Harrisburg Thursday evening was the first to see the newest billboard calling for Penn State to restore a symbol of Joe Paterno's legacy.

The latest PS4Truth Billboard is calling for Penn State to return Paterno's statue to its former home outside of Beaver Stadium in State College, said PS4Truth member Jim Diebold. The billboard will be in rotation starting at 6 p.m. Thursday, Diebold said.

"We think it's time to focus on Joe and honoring him properly," Diebold said. "I was at Penn State in Joe's early days... nobody has dedicated the time money and energy to a university that Joe Paterno has."

Vote in PennLive's Poll: Should Joe Paterno's statue be restored?

The group paid for three billboards in early January after the NCAA and Penn State reached an agreement to restore 112 vacated football wins. The controversy is a result of the actions of Jerry Sandusky, a former Penn State football assistant coach under Paterno, who is serving 30 to 60 years in prison for sexually abusing children, some of them on the Penn State campus.

The same group paid for electronic billboards in 2012 criticizing Gov. Tom Corbett, the Penn State trustees, the NCAA, Louis Freeh and the media. In 2013, a billboard supporting Joe Paterno and his 409 total wins was put up near the Thompsontown exit along Routes 22/322 eastbound in Juniata County.

Diebold said he is ashamed Paterno's legacy was questioned during the Sandusky saga, and noting that it was an overreaction to blame Paterno for the actions of a child abuser who has gone through the judicial system and has been criminally punished.

"If I thought I were hurting victims, I certainly wouldn't be pursuing this cause," Diebold said. "We've gotten to where we are and where we have been because we had a board of trustees that panicked under a frenzied media. Now 21/2 years later, people have had a chance to take a serious look and a deep breath and we see it all for what it was."

Diebold said he isn't sure how long the billboards will run in the Harrisburg area, but he said the goal is to campaign to have Paterno's statue up again by this fall's football homecoming.

"It truly would be a homecoming -- I think it would all fit well together," Diebold said.

This post has been updated to include a link to PennLive's poll.