BOISE, Idaho — A 60-foot phallus created by vandals on the grassy slopes beneath the governor’s mansion has been fig-leafed over by work crews on their second try.
The area was recently replanted with grass seedlings and covered with straw. A previous attempt by landscapers to obliterate the image only enhanced it with a dark green outline, after which it was covered with a bright blue tarpaulin for several weeks.
“Humor is humor, and people can laugh and we move on,” Rick Phillips, communications director for J.R. Simplot Co., told the Idaho Statesman.
The affected part of the hillside belongs to Simplot, an agricultural conglomerate which donated the hilltop mansion to the state in 2004. The mansion is currently unoccupied because Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter lives on his ranch in Star.
The grassy graffiti appeared in July after someone applied extra-strength weed killer. Officials said at the time it was too late in the growing season to attempt to remove the image.
Snow hid the oversized phallus over the winter, but when it emerged again in the spring some neighbors had had enough.
“They’re upset about it,” said Annette Tetreault, a worker at Moxie Java near the hill on Bogus Basin Road, which gives motorists a full windshield view of the hillside. “Maybe it could be offensive.”
Others were indifferent.
“I’m not easily offended, but I could see where it would offend people who have children,” said Dennis McGaha, who lives part-time near the mansion. “It was probably just some prank by high school kids. You can go to the mall, walk by Victoria’s Secret and see a lot more risque stuff than that.”
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