Billboard fight rages on
Theft of playground at heart of application denial remains unsolved
Why a play structure for hearing- impaired children disappeared once it became key to a long legal fight over a controversial billboard remained a mystery Thursday.
Public statements, police reticence and court records offered some clues. The billboard company, Lamar Outdoor, was not talking.
Wednesday, the Oklahoma Transportation Department revoked a permit for Lamar to erect an electronic billboard adjacent to property occupied by the nonprofit Hearts for Hearing.
The site sought by Lamar is at Hefner Pointe, in a billboard- free zone under city of Oklahoma City ordinances along Lake Hefner Parkway, which is also State Highway 74.
Lamar's bid to state officials for a billboard there rankled city officials, who said in court papers that the sign was prohibited by Oklahoma City zoning regulations.
Lamar argued it was exempt from Oklahoma City's rules
and regulations but, leaving that dispute between the city of OKC and ODOT for another day, the state revoked the permit after determining the billboard would be within 500 feet of a playground, in violation of state and federal regulations.
Which brings the story back to Hearts for Hearing's red, yellow and blue play structure.
According to a police report, a gray four-door pickup pulling a flatbed trailer pulled up near the play structure about 5:30 p.m. Oct. 26, a Saturday.
Two people loaded the playground equipment, two slides with a set of stairs, onto the trailer and left.
The play structure was worth $ 6,500, Joanna Smith, executive director of Hearts for Hearing, said this week. Police officer Chad Pickle classified the incident as a felony.
Two days later, on Oct. 28, Lamar applied again to the state for a new billboard permit, renewing a request first made more than a year ago. ODOT issued the permit the same day.
In Wednesday's revocation notice, Lisa Erickson Endres, chief of the agency's legal and business division, said the permit was issued, in part, on Lamar's representations that — and this was italicized and in boldface — “there was no playground within 500 feet of the sign site location.”
Ward 8 Councilman Mark Stonecipher had asked Transportation Department inspectors to look again. An email from Brad Kilman of Our Lord's Community Church next door to Hearts for Hearing confirmed the church considered equipment on its property to be a playground, Endres' letter said.
In court papers filed a week ago, attorneys for the city of Oklahoma City and the Hearts for Hearing Foundation said — again in boldface — “a construction crew presumably employed or retained by Lamar accessed the area and stole Hearts for Hearing's temporary playground.”
The Oklahoma City Police Department has surveillance video of the incident but a spokesman said the detective assigned to the case was “not ready to release the video yet.”
Bill Hickman, a Norman attorney for Lamar, did not respond to three telephone messages and one email this week seeking comment. Eric Cayot, Lamar's real estate manager, did not respond to a phone message Thursday.
In a public statement issued along with Endres' revocation letter, ODOT said the agency “does not guide property owners on how to resolve impediment issues,” suggesting Lamar may have considered Hearts for Hearing's play structure to be impeding on the easement it acquired for the sign from Our Lord's Community Church.
Smith, the Hearts for Hearing executive director, has said having the 55-foot-tall flashing sign only feet from where specialists conduct pediatric hearing assessments could be detrimental to children's progress.
Asked Thursday about prospects for getting the play structure back, she texted, “We have been singularly focused on protecting our patients by preventing the billboard.
“I am hopeful we will be requesting the playground be returned by end of day,” she said. “So far no word.”