Damaged moose art to be fixed
The bright yellow crime-scene tape has come down at two spots along Coeur d’Alene’s Northwest Boulevard where vandals tipped over and damaged moose that are a part of a summer-long public art and fund-raising project. The fiberglass moose carcasses were removed by Wednesday morning and hauled off to a local man’s paint shop for repair.
“We’ll try and get them out again as soon as we can. We want whoever knocked them down to know we will not be deterred,” said Darrell Dlouhy, technical committee chair for the EXCEL Foundation, the group behind putting a herd of fiberglass moose on display around Coeur d’Alene for three months.
Individual moose have been sponsored by area businesses or groups and each has been handed over to a regional artist to be transformed into quirky pieces of public art.
The vandalism last weekend – after the moose had been out on the streets only a matter of days – came as a shock, said Lonne Jordahl of the EXCEL Foundation. But, he said, the group has been pleased that sponsors, artists and city residents have all rallied to keep an eye on the moose.
“Everyone has been very supportive. Nobody has said let’s take these moose and move ‘em in, move ‘em out of the street,” Jordahl said. “We are not going to let one incident of vandalism deter us.”
As foundation members investigated repair details, the two moose lay on their sides for a couple of days, surrounded by crime-scene tape and with boldly lettered new signs offering a $5,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the vandals.
Coeur d’Alene police Lt. Don Jiran, one of the city’s top investigators, said Thursday that detectives are pursuing one lead in the case.
“We will see where that lead takes us,” Jiran said. “As far as we are aware, there are no new victims and we’ll cross our fingers and hope it stays that way.”
The damaged moose were “Digging Water Patatoes Along Lake Coeur d’Alene,” by Native American artist George Flett, and “Matilda” by Deer Park artist Steve Strickland.
Jordahl and Dlouhy said the foundation is trying to contact both artists to examine the fiberglass repairs and touch up the artwork as needed.
Strickland’s moose suffered several cracks along the hollow fiberglass body. Flett’s art piece suffered a shattered ankle where the moose attaches to a concrete base.
“These fell on soft grass,” Dlouhy said, expressing surprise at the amount of damage.
Dlouhy said foundation staffers were able to talk with local boat shop owners for tips on fiberglass repair, found someone with extensive auto body repair experience to handle the repairs, and expect to have both moose back on the street soon.
In the meantime, Dlouhy said staffers are checking with businesses around the display sites to see if the moose are covered by security cameras, and have begun assembling gear to install their own surveillance network if needed.
The idea would be more for deterrence rather than creating some menacing atmosphere that Big Moose is watching, Jordahl said.
Mostly, Dlouhy said, they would rather touch the theme of It Takes a Village to Raise a Moose.
“We are just trying to encourage people to watch out for them. We’re not able to keep eye on all of them all the time,” Dlouhy said. “People are loving them, but we’ve got to have help.”