Removing the graffiti from the landmark on the grounds of South Avondale Elementary School could cost $2,500. But money is tight. So far, no one has stepped forward to foot the bill.

Meanwhile, vandals brandishing permanent markers continue to scribble profane messages on the monument's U-shaped granite base.

In a classic case of irony, the N-word appears in crude black and blue penmanship at the foot of a bronze statue of Abraham Lincoln, the president who signed the Emancipation Proclamation to put an end to slavery.

City Hall and the monument's owner, Cincinnati Public Schools, have tried to remove the graffiti. But to no avail.

Since May, the city's graffiti removal crew has spent 80-plus hours on the project. Experts were consulted. Two ink-removal substances were applied. The graffiti remained.

Meg Olberding, an assistant to the city manager, said: "We're out of ideas."

And money.

The city's budget shortfalls have forced the closing of restrooms in parks and brownouts at fire stations.

The school system is also monetarily challenged.

Both entities question spending money to remove graffiti - which could readily reappear - on a public work of art that's just three years removed from being restored.

The Lincoln monument's 2001 restoration cost $70,000. The work was performed by members of the same team that preserved the Tyler Davidson Fountain on Fountain Square.

STATUE'S HISTORY

• Unveiled on Dec. 23, 1902, the Lincoln monument originally stood at Rockdale and Main avenues in Avondale. • Main Avenue became Reading Road. Urban renewal later closed off Rockdale. Today, the bronze statues of Abraham Lincoln and Lady Liberty stand on their granite base near the intersection of Reading and Forest Avenue. • Civil War veteran Charles Clinton - a Queen City resident and shipping magnate - gave the monument to Cincinnati Public Schools. Avondale Public School, later Ach Junior High, stood on the site. Ach was leveled to make way for the South Avondale Elementary School. • William Granville Hastings, an English artist, sculpted the 19-foot-tall monument. The statue cost $4,000. • Copies of the Lincoln and Liberty statues stand in Bunker Hill, Ill., and copies of the Lincoln statue stand in Jefferson and Sioux City, Iowa. Hastings, however, died June 14, 1902, at age 34 before any of the Lincoln and Liberty statues were unveiled. • Avondale's Lincoln monument has long been the site of public protest. Photos from 1950 show graffiti on the statue's base. Vandals dumped a bucket of paint on the statue in 1970. • After the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., the corner of Rockdale and Reading was ground zero for the riots of 1968. Rioters and National Guard troops based their operations under Lincoln's gaze. Cliff Radel

The conservators cleaned Lincoln and the kneeling bronze figure of Lady Liberty. They left the cut where someone tried to saw off her right arm.

Liberty's right hand holds a quill pen that has her writing in granite the famous line from Lincoln's second inaugural address: "With malice toward none."

This summer, Liberty got some tattoos to go along with her scar. Gang symbols have been drawn on the back of her neck.

The monument's sorry state concerns Pat Parlato.

"This statue is meant to uplift people," the Oakley resident said.

"To see some nudniks write on it is disgusting. It looks horrible. It brings down the entire neighborhood. It's a depressing sight for anyone passing by."

Parlato falls into the latter category. For the past 46 years, first as a schoolgirl, then a college co-ed and now a working woman, she has passed the statue to and from home.

She works as an executive secretary at LabOne of Ohio. Parlato is no rabble rouser. She's just a fan of the Lincoln monument.

Parlato saw the graffiti increase over the summer. She contacted the city and Cincinnati Public Schools.

She even took action by finding a local expert on removing graffiti from granite and relayed the recommendations to the city's public services department.

"I went to see the statue a couple weeks ago," said Howie Mees. He's a third-generation owner of Mees Distributors. His family has worked with marble and granite since 1940, when Avondale's Lincoln monument was 38 years old.

Mees selected a test spot at the monument and applied a poultice of volcanic ash and aviation paint remover.

"You mix it up like mashed potatoes, pack it on, cover with cellophane and let it dry overnight. Sometimes you have to reapply it two or three times."

An hour later, Mees returned to the test site.

"It was starting to pull out the ink," he said. "It was definitely doing the job."

To complete the project, he offered "a guesstimate of $2,000-$2,200 and another $200 for a wax sealer."

The sealer would keep marker ink from soaking into the stone.

The ultimate cure would be to prevent vandals from defacing the monument.

"Stopping the vandals is the key," said Robert Lodge of McKay Lodge Conservation Laboratory, the Oberlin, Ohio firm that worked on the Lincoln monument and Tyler Davidson Fountain.

He recommends cleaning the monument once.

"If the graffiti returns, don't do it again," Lodge said. "It's like wiping the slate free and encouraging them do it again."

Mike Burson, Cincinnati Public Schools director of facilities, is hoping an angel will donate money to pay for the graffiti's removal. At the same time, he's weighing several more lasting solutions to the problem.

"Within two weeks," he said, "we will select an architect to replace South Avondale Elementary. We are going to give a comprehensive look as to how we can fix this on a permanent basis."

He's considering three options: fence off the site; install security cameras; move the monument.

Burson favors option No. 2.

"You hate to restrict public access," he said. "You also hate to take the statue off the public right of way."

Keeping the public away from the monument would have riled Lincoln. He believed in government of the people, by the people and for the people.

E-mail cradel@enquirer.com