A painted pole on Pine Island was just recently damaged, taking away its colorful artwork.
Savannah Hinkle, 16, painted a blue and green peacock pole along Stringfellow Road, near Moose Lodge, for someone special to her.
That woman noticed it was damaged while on her way to work Friday morning.
The painted telephone poles have been a signature on Pine Island, and the Greater Pine Island Chamber of Commerce relaunched a project to paint the poles on April 1, 2024, after past hurricanes weathered them.
However, none of Hinkle's five painted poles had been damaged by anything but weather, until now.
"I was upset, but I knew it could be worse," Hinkle said.
The paint was ripped right off the middle, and wood pieces were lying in the grass. Because of this, she began wondering if LCEC employees working in the area may have caused the damage.
"I think that actually the reason why they did it is because I had painted over their number, and they had scraped it off," Hinkle said.
But why she painted it is so much more important to her than how the damage happened.
"She was at work, so I kind of wanted to finish up for her before she got back for like a surprise because she was really upset," she said.
She began fixing the pole over the weekend. She still isn't sure how the damage happened. She says while she doesn't own the pole, she does own the artwork. She hopes people respect that.
"I would say be a little bit more careful and respect that someone put a lot of time into something like this and a lot of hours in the heat," she said.
The LCEC said it is aware of the damage but isn't exactly sure what happened.