Alaska News

Vandals damage 'sun' on downtown planet walk

Someone took a chunk out of the sun -- a replica of it, anyway.

The 6-foot-tall yellow half-dome sits downtown on the corner of Fifth Avenue and G Street, outside the Alaska Center for the Performing Arts. It marks the beginning of the Anchorage Light Speed Planet Walk, a scale model of our solar system that extends from downtown to Kincaid Park.

The sun is covered with apple-sized octagonal tiles and weighs almost 6,000 pounds. Recently, someone chipped away the yellow tile on a small utility door that leads to the inside of the sun, leaving 3-foot-long white patches, according to the Anchorage Rotary Club that maintains it.

Anchorage police didn't know exactly when the vandalism happened, said Officer Matthew Fraize, who was assigned to the case. Someone from the Anchorage Parks and Recreation Department reported it Aug. 1.

The recent vandalism is another in a long list of planetary headaches for the Rotary Club, said Jon C. Deisher, past president of the Rotary. Someone once punched a hole in Jupiter, he said.

The rings on Saturn were torn off a couple of times.

Venus, which sits in front of the Hotel Captain Cook, was hit by a car.

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The planets originally cost around $600,000. Vandals have caused tens of thousands of dollars in damage in the five years since Rotary finished installing the planet walk, he said.

Deisher said he doesn't know how much the sun will cost to fix this time, but he said it will likely be expensive. The tiles are all hand-made.

Diesher said he doesn't understand why a project that was meant to improve the city has turned into a constant target for destruction.

"Those tiles are hard, and it took multiple efforts to break that door off," he said.

Find Kaylin Bettinger online at adn.com/contact/kbettinger or call her at 257-4349.

By KAYLIN BETTINGER

kbettinger@adn.com

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