LIHUE — Kaua‘i residents may have seen a onslaught of anti-GMO symbols spray painted on area roads and signs. The current rash of handwritten anti-GMO signs, which depict the word GMO in the center of a circle with a slash
LIHUE — Kaua‘i residents may have seen a onslaught of anti-GMO symbols spray painted on area roads and signs.
The current rash of handwritten anti-GMO signs, which depict the word GMO in the center of a circle with a slash through it, have stretched across a full traffic lane and popped up in several places, including by the pedestrian crosswalk for Opaeka‘a Falls, on the Kuhio Highway near the entrance to Kaua‘i Beach Resort and on Kaumuali‘i Highway before it splits into Kuhio Highway and Rice Street.
Roads are generally maintained by the county roads division or by state department of transportation.
According to Edmond Renaud, deputy county engineer of the Kaua‘i County Roads Division, an anti-GMO message was spray painted on Ala Kino‘iki Road, also known as the Koloa bypass, last week and a crew painted over it.
“This was the first report of graffiti on county roads or signs in recent memory,” said Mary Daubert, public information office for the County of Kaua‘i.
Daubert said that while the county hopes it won’t happen again, if it does, “a crew will be sent out to handle the problem as quickly as possible.”
“DOT has had some of the ‘No GMO’ graffiti on our highways,” said Caroline Sluyter, public information officer with the state Department of Transportation. She said there was a specific site on Kaumuali‘i Highway near Mile Post 27.
“Our procedure is to file a police report with Kaua‘i Police,” Sluyter said. “In general for graffiti on state DOT property we have our own crews paint over it, if at all possible.”
Sluyter added that, “vandalism, such as graffiti on state highways or state property, diverts our workforce and resources away from maintaining our state roads.”
In January of this year, The Garden Island reported that KPD were informed of two anti-GMO signs that were spray painted using a stencil on the Po‘ipu Bypass Road. The stencils were sprayed about a mile apart from one another.
• Laurie Cicotello, business writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 257) or business@thegardenisland.com.
