Nothing's ever to scale in some city planning circles and whatever gets bought in Las Vegas probably should have stayed in Las Vegas, especially after the Council of Trent ("Pictura in Cappella Ap.ca coopriantur"). Is that a party hat on your head or are you a member of the Klan?
HURRICANE – The bull sculpture atop Barista’s restaurant at 460 W. State St. in Hurricane, UT made famous over the last few weeks after it sparked outrage in the community over its extra-large male anatomy, received a penectomy of sorts Friday when the owner decided to have the bull’s penis removed.
“The famous weenie’s gone,” Barista’s Restaurant Owner Stephen Ward said Friday afternoon, “but the reason I did it is because I didn’t like it.”
Ward, who said he has spent a million dollars on signs for his 5,500-square-foot restaurant, said he purchased the $130,000 bull sculpture in Las Vegas.
After the bull went up on the sign on March 14, Ward said he decided he didn’t like how much the genitalia of the bull obstructed the view of the bull’s belly and the plate work on the sculpture.
Ward said:
I saw that beautiful sculpture in Vegas and bought it and I was just thinking about it and, this morning, after it being up for a couple weeks – it has nothing to do with the city at all – I said ‘you know what, I’m gonna have that penis taken off so you can see more of the beautiful (bull). I love the joints and the plate work, you know, instead of that atrocious, well that party hat. It was so stupid because it looks like a party hat.
When the well-endowed bull initially went up at Barista’s, it prompted fierce backlash from angry residents who called the sign offensive and inappropriate, saying the depiction of the bull’s genitalia was blatantly overdone.
Notwithstanding the recent outrage over the bull, Ward said the real issue Hurricane City residents have is with him and has nothing to do with the sign.
Hurricane City Planning Director Toni Foran confirmed Ward went through all the proper steps to have the sign approved by Hurricane City before having the sign installed and said the sign was approved by the city before it went up.
“We saw a depiction on a piece of paper probably about 3 inches tall that, you know, may not have had exactly the same proportions,” Foran said.