City wants to put stop to stop sign protests
By WALT WILLIAMS, Chronicle Staff WriterBozeman officials want to slam the brakes on a form of political protest that is destroying stop signs across the city.
In the past nine months, the city has had to clean-up or replace nearly 160 stop signs with anti-war or anti-Bush messages scrawled on them with spray paint. The damage has so far cost the city $4,600.
Steve Robbins, Bozeman's sign and signal department foreman, said he understands many people have strong feelings about the recent war. He's seen the protests with marchers waving around fake stop signs with "stop war" printed across their faces.
It's when they move on to the real thing that he has a problem.
"We're obligated to maintain these signs, not just from an esthetically pleasing viewpoint, but from a safety standpoint," he said.
The vandalism usually is political, although occasionally city crews turn up signs with obscenities on them. The most common messages are "stop war," "stop Bush" and "stop hate."
The hardest-hit areas seem to be from South Wallace Avenue to Grand Avenue and from Babcock Street to College Street, Director of Public Services Debbie Arkell said.
"Some of the signs (city crews) were able to wipe off the graffiti," she said. "Some of the paint, and we would rather not say what color it is, we can't get it off."
In that case, the city must replace the signs with new ones, which can run anywhere from $30 to $45 a sign.
"The paint takes away from the reflectiveness of the sign and that's dangerous," Arkell said.
The problem isn't a new one, nor is it confined to Bozeman. Robbins said vandals defaced 178 stop signs during a three-month period around the start of the Iraqi invasion last year.
His crews were only able clean up 30 or 40 of the signs. The rest had to be replaced.
Missoula also has been hit hard. Carl Thompson, the city's traffic services superintendent, said his crews replace an average of 200 signs a year.
"It is a safety issue because it distorts the message, but luckily the shape of a stop sign is very recognizable," he said.
Thompson said his crews have seen an increase in the "stop Bush" messages within the last few weeks.
Bozeman officials say outbreaks of stop sign vandalism seem to be linked to news events, like the war in Iraq. They even noted an upswing around the release of "Fahrenheit 9/11," a Michael Moore documentary attacking the Bush administration, even though they're careful not to suggest cause-and-effect.
Who's doing it? Bozeman Deputy Police Chief Mark Lachapelle wasn't aware of any citations or arrests made in connection with the vandalism when recently asked about it.
He did say that the vandals could face six months in jail and a $1,000 fine if caught vandalizing a stop sign. If a person or persons were somehow linked to all the vandalism, then they could face felony charges, given the expense of the damage.
They also could be found criminally liable if a vehicle crashed because it ran a stop sign that was illegible because of the vandalism, he suggested.
Robbins, for one, is convinced it isn't kids doing the damage.
"These are grown-ups," he said. "I don't know what they think they're accomplishing by defacing my stop signs. The intent of the stop sign is to make it safe for the traveling public."
The vandalism has started to move to other street signs, like pedestrian crossing signs. Robbins suggested having the vandals, if caught, pay the public price for such signs, usually $90 a sign. He also likes the idea of having them replace defaced signs themselves.
"If they had to do it, I'm sure they wouldn't be too happy about it," he said.