Wisteria Creating Dangerous Tangled Mess On Lodi Art Project
LODI (CBS13) — While beauty is in the eye of the beholder, everyone in Lodi agrees one art piece the city spent $100,000 on is a tangled mess.
If you stop and ask someone walking by where the installation is, odds are they can't see it. That hidden artwork is now a danger that the city is planning to rework.
The cluster of grapes artwork now draped in weedy vines hangs on the side of a downtown Lodi parking garage facing the railroad tracks.
Lodi public works director Wally Sandelin wasn't in charge of the project back in 2001 when it was commissioned and designed by a contractor,but afterwards there was a concern.
"The artwork didn't really stand out that much so they thought a vine would look nice," he said.
City leaders chose wisteria that would end up covering the entire wall in a couple of years. Now that wisteria has dried out and become a fire hazard.
The city will hire a contractor to clean off the vines allowing residents once again to view the metal masterpiece.
The city plans to hire a contractor in the next month or so to climb up this wall and cut these vines down. City leaders are hoping that's the last problem that crops up with this artwork.