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Owners, Agency Reach 'Bra Fence' Accord
(submitted by gekkogecko)
AP to My
Yahoo!
HELENA, Mont. - Facing a fence festooned with bras,
the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks
decided letting it all hang out was a bit too much.
The agency recently cut about 20 bras off a
barbed-wire fence near a state-managed fishing site
along the Missouri River. That riled property owners
Frank Cooper and Shirley Cleary, who saw a "bra fence"
in New Zealand and liked it.
"We decided it would be fun to do that here in
Montana," said Cooper, who contends Fish, Wildlife and
Parks violated his speech and property rights.
An accord has been reached, but not without some bumps
along the way.
The flap over the bra fence began in July, when the
Cooper/Cleary family held a "Beer, Brat and Bra Bust"
party at the family's Missouri River vacation cabin.
Friends provided bras of various descriptions, plus
little black lacy things, for the fence.
"We're talking people 50 to 83 years old, all
respectable citizens, like attorneys, social workers,
retired professors," Cooper said at his home in
Helena. "We drank a little wine, ate a few brats and
christened the bra fence."
Cleary said the hope was that over time, people
passing by on Missouri River float trips would further
decorate the fence. But two days after the party,
Fish, Wildlife and Parks removed the bras.
"We manage those sites for multiple uses and get all
types of people, as well as sportsmen, from all walks
of life and different ethnicities," said Jim Kropp,
enforcement chief for the agency. "We didn't feel that
this activity was appropriate for a public site."
Cooper said a survey confirmed the fence is on his
land.
Fish, Wildlife and Parks Director Jeff Hagener said in
a letter that there was concern the bra fence would
"attract many more objects than just bras and become
an even greater attractive nuisance and become more
offensive to more people...
"If you insist on continuing to utilize and promote
this fence as a 'bra fence,' FWP will continue to
remove items hung on the fence until we are able to
construct some type of screen ..."
What began as a "fun thing" grew serious, Cooper said.
Mike Aderhold, a regional supervisor for Fish,
Wildlife and Parks, said that "even lawsuits were
threatened. I thought `Oh man, we don't need to go in
that direction if we don't have to.'"
Under an agreement with the state agency, Cooper now
plans to have bras on the fence for a few days, then
move them to a less conspicuous place until there is
screening. Fish, Wildlife and Parks said the area will
be enhanced, perhaps by planting some trees.
Two state employees recently showed up at Cooper's
home and gave him about 20 confiscated bras. On each,
a strap had been sliced to remove the bra from the
fence.
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