just out ▼ docsm bor 1, 1995 ▼ 19
local news
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Signs of the times?
,
A Corvallis lesbian gay and bisexual group
adopts a highway and a big headache
T
by Chris Brady
bservant motorists on Highway 99
Holstein cows hoover the grass. A feed factory
west, just north of Monroe, Ore.,
looks abandoned. Intersection of Dawson Road:
have been treated to a debate of
west to Bellfountain and the Hull Oakes Lumber
sorts on freedom of expression over
Company, with the last steam-powered mill in the
the past couple of years. The Adopt-
region.
A-Highway program of the Oregon Department
of guys wearing big black cowboy hats in
Young
Transportation is the focus of the problem. In
pickup trucks with gun racks tailgate and zoom
return for litter pickup on a particular stretch of
past. Corn’s gettin’ high. Barn’s full of hay in the
field. Single-wide and double-wide homes. Birds
road, organizations get their names posted on a
discreet green sign at either end of their section.
flying. Dead skunk in the middle of the road
But the After 8 Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Group
stinkin’ to high heaven. Loaded lumber trucks
of Corvallis kept getting its signs, posted on the
pulling skirts of dust by a roadside sign. Love for
Sale: Himalayan Kittens thru Adults. Empty log
road outside of Monroe, vandalized and stolen.
trucks with the trailer stacked on the cab like some
The Transportation Department claims that the
adoption program works well, offering a cut in
kind of mobile cannon, en route to the mountains
for more tree trunks.
maintenance costs to taxpayers, beautification of
the roadside, and an advertisement of civic pride
At McFarlan Road, planted under a shade tree,
for the group involved. Michele Perrizo of ODOT
the General Assembly and Church of the First
said that groups get a sign where available in return
Bom sits. A couple from that congregation are
for a minimum of four litter pick
currently up on charges of man
ups per year. The department sup
slaughter because they wouldn’t
plies the orange Litter Patrol signs,
let more than faith in Jesus treat
vests, bags and litter sticks. The
their seriously ill young son. He
groups supply transportation and
died.
the labor for cleaning up a five-
Down the road a bit is the
foot-wide, two-mile-long section
never-purloined Phi Kappa Chi
on both sides of the highway. For
Adopt-A-Highway sign. We’ve
legal and insurance reasons, vol
driven the two miles to where one
unteer workers must be over 16
adoption ends and another starts.
years of age. Perrizo said that there
Across from Phi Kappa Chi’s sign
is a waiting list of groups seeking
is the remains of After 8’s, just a
to adopt a section of highway.
four-foot-high four-by-four
“After 8’s signs have been van
lopped off by a chain saw. A few
dalized and stolen at least three or
feet further, near where Old River
four times,” Perrizo said. When
Road comes into 99, other signs
asked if any other group’s signs
appear unmolested: Five Miles
had experienced such abuse, she
to Monroe. Twelve Miles to
said that rocker Ted Nugent’s
C orvallis. B undey’s Bridge
World Bowhunters signs have been
Campground, Half a Mile. A great
taken and that Willamette Indus
column of gray smoke rises high
tries has had a sign disappear. She
in the blue sky from a field burn
supposed that the rocker’s signs
ing.
were valued and therefore
Perrizo suggested to After 8
snatched, rather than vandalized.
that its sign simply say After 8
While she agreed that motives were difficult to
and leave off the Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Group
ascertain, and that the After 8 case was one of
of Corvallis. After 8 elected to keep its identity on
repeated attack, she admitted a concern over the
the sign. Karuna Neustadt of After 8 takes excep
open declaration of homosexuality on After 8’s
tion to being forced back into the closet. The group
sign.
is eager, she says, “to participate in the life of the
In some areas of Oregon, advertising “unnatu
community visibly as lesbians, gay men and bi
ral sex” might provoke retaliation. One might
sexuals.” She charges that some people want them
suppose that After 8 selected this rural part of 99.
to disappear. "Lesbians, gay men and bisexuals
A few anti-gay-rights signs went up in the area in
have been participating forever, but not visibly,”
the past couple of elections. Maybe the folks at
she says. And so After 8 members are out showing
After 8 just wanted the country folks to see that
their civic pride—openly and honestly, with noth
they were law-abiding citizens who cared about
ing to hide.
their community, too. Perrizo insists, however,
ODOT replaces two signs for free; after that, it
that the process of who gets what section of road is
charges. The signs are approximately $50. After 8
one of random allotment according to what’s avail
asked to be on the waiting list for a more urban
able at the time.
setting for its sign and litter-patrol duties, and it
But let’s get a picture of the area over the Long
made the move when a spot opened up on Highway
Tom River and up past the small town of Monroe,
20, north of Corvallis on the way to Albany. “Over
where After 8’s signs are posted. Driving north at
behind the Hewlett Packard plant,” said Michele
the tail end of summer, the scene stretches out from
Perrizo.
the Lawrence Nursery through the countryside.
The signs went up in early October. Neustadt
Past Starr Road, the Coast Range looms across the
says she’s happy with this location closer to
fields over to the left. Aspens rise beyond the right
Corvallis. “We hope the sign will be less vulner
shoulder; the first After 8 sign appears, today
able to vandalism,” she says.
intact.
To some, however, the outcome may seem
Past some stables advertising Horses for Sale
similar to the old Western tradition of taking unde
and Stallion Service, the trees are replaced by
sirables and running them out of town. After 8 has
cleared farmland hosed by big irrigation sprayers.
been run off, but it isn’t the outlaw. The villains are
The distant Cascades appear off to the right, far
faceless, unelected censors who broke the law and
across the flat Willamette Valley. There’s a one-
have never been caught. Meanwhile, a dedicated
story bungalow with an American flag hung by the
group of spirited Oregonians does its part to clean
front porch. A sign says No Trespassing. Some
up the routes of access in our society.
O
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