WILKES-BARRE, Pa. (AP) — Wilkes-Barre city officials have removed a public monument that included a recently added brick that was sponsored by a Ku Klux Klan affiliate.

The Citizens’ Voice reported Thursday the column monument in the city’s public square was taken down three weeks after a brick was placed on it bearing the name of the East Coast Knights, a KKK chapter that has recruited in Wilkes-Barre.

“East Coast Knights of the True Invisible Empire” was engraved into one of the plaques on the monument. Wilkes-Barre city officials told WNEP the plaque was purchased from someone in Venus, Texas, who later provided a Nanticoke address on the application.

Wilkes-Barre city administrator Rick Gazenski had told WNEP that “as much as we don’t like what’s there, we cannot take (the brick) down. It would be unconstitutional.”

Activist Gene Stilp is arrested after publicly trying to remove a brick-shaped plaque on a city monument that bore the name of a Ku Klux Klan affiliate group, on Public Square in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., Friday July 12, 2019. (Mark Moran/The Citizens' Voice via AP)

Harrisburg citizen activist Gene Stilp tried to chisel it off last week, resulting in a disorderly conduct charge. He says he plans to fight the charge.

The monument was installed in 2008. Supporters could purchase engraved bricks for $35.

On Thursday morning, Mayor Tony George announced he directed the monument to be removed in its entirety.

“Yesterday, I directed that the brick display on Public Square be removed,” George said in a statement. “After careful consideration of all issues involved, and most importantly, the fact that the display was not going to survive the ongoing renovations on Public Square, I decided now was an appropriate time to remove the display in its entirety.

"Before removal, I reached out to a former member of Celebrate Wilkes-Barre, Inc. I was informed that entity is now defunct and had no interest in retrieving the display. In the near future, the city will be issuing a press release detailing how people who wish to retrieve a purchased brick can do so.”

Tyler Ryan, executive assistant to the mayor, confirmed the monument has been removed.