PARIS, Ky. (LEX 18) — What's usually a beautiful tourist attraction in Bourbon County has been marred by hateful messages. Even worse, county officials say it's not the first time.
A handful of historic covered bridges are scattered across central and northeastern Kentucky. People in Bourbon County are proud of the Colville covered bridge.
"It's a great tourist attraction for our community. A lot of people come from all areas of Kentucky and different states, even. We've met them from Canada down here," said Steve Adkins, the road supervisor for Bourbon County.
The bridge has seen a lot of repairs and restorations over the years, but it's still got some old-fashioned charm. That's why it's so painful to see what's inside the bridge, hidden in the darkness.
"It's disgusting. It's simply disgusting," Adkins said.
Wednesday morning, there were at least 11 swastikas and other antisemitic messages spray painted throughout the interior.
"It's just disgusting what people do and how they would do this to our bridge. As you can see, there's a lot of effort went into what we were doing here. It's almost like between every beam and every few boards, there was more graffiti," Adkins said.
It was the second time in a week. Crews had just finished covering up more hateful graffiti just a couple of days ago.
"Normally, it's a two or three-week event before we have to come back, but it's almost like someone was waiting. We got it done and they come back behind us just out of spite is how it makes me feel," Adkins said.
Adkins said they are trying to find ways to get people to stop doing this. They've advertised rewards for information about vandals. They also plan to install a camera. Adkins would rather not have to send crews back to the bridge repeatedly, but leaving the graffiti up, he said, is not an option.
"We've got plenty of other stuff we need to be doing, but I mean, we can't leave stuff like this. We're not going to have this. We're going to paint over it, get rid of it as soon as possible," he said.
His hope is to preserve a beautiful history, while leaving that hatred in the past.
