On the surface, the project would seem to be as controversial as a cute puppy dog, which is to say, not at all: A bright, colorful mural with an anti-tobacco theme, painted by neighborhood kids, designed by an award-winning local artist and sponsored in part by a nonprofit community group.

It is not overtly political or salacious, and nowhere on it do Terrell Owens and Nicolette Sheridan appear in towels.

	Steve Mellon/Post-Gazette A newly constructed planter partially covers this anti-smoking mural on Chartiers Avenue in McKees Rocks. Click photo for larger image.

But the business adjacent to the mural, McDermott Funeral Home Inc., does not like it at all. It has built an elaborate wall with planters and will install trees and other foliage to completely block out the mural.

"The kids are crushed," said Tracy Scanlon, program director of the McKees Rocks social services agency Focus On Renewal, the organization sponsoring the mural. "Here we have a good thing being done and an outside source throws a wrench in it."

"We don't know if it's the right thing to have next to a funeral home," said Tim Wilt, manager of the funeral home. "A funeral home is a very subdued atmosphere."

Painted in primarily bright hues of orange and purple, the roughly 20-by-100-foot mural covers the side of the building at 1209 Chartiers Ave. It depicts a group of strong, healthy children standing on a bunch of crushed cigarettes while others engage in smoke-free, athletic activities such as swimming, cycling and dancing.

The building owners, Adona Services Inc., a print design firm, signed off on the project without hesitation, said FOR Executive Director Father Regis Ryan. The mural was the second in McKees Rocks sponsored by FOR, he said, and was to be completed Nov. 20 and dedicated last weekend. Adona officials were not available for comment yesterday.

Funded by a grant under the Pennsylvania Department of Health and the Tobacco Free Allegheny's The Music and Arts as Prevention program, the mural was designed by local artist and Art Institute of Pittsburgh alum Kyle Holbrook.

Holbrook's mural portfolio includes works displayed at 13 Housing Authority communities, Monroeville Mall and the Port Authority, and he has been involved with several youth-oriented community art programs throughout the area dealing with different social themes ranging from diversity to depression.

"The idea is that kids can accomplish their goals if they stay tobacco free," Holbrook said.

A group of about 20 kids from the Sto-Rox area, age 8-18 would meet twice weekly during the fall to discuss and plan the project, then paint it on Saturday mornings.

Ryan said that since the students would need to be in the lot of McDermott Funeral Home to paint the side of the building, they sought permission for that, too, which was granted.

The mural began to go up. Then things got weird.

"After about two or three weeks of the picture going up, [funeral home ownership] saw it and got upset and angry and said they were losing business because of it," Ryan said.

Ryan said that he and his staff met with the funeral home with mediation by McKees Rocks Mayor Jack Muhr to work out a compromise.

Instead the parties agreed to disagree.

"They said if we went on their property, they'd have us arrested," Ryan said.

Undeterred, Ryan, Holbrook and the kids set out to finish the project. The first Saturday back on the job, they weren't bothered.

The next, Ryan said, police sent the kids home and threatened to cite him with trespassing, which he said he would have welcomed if only to have the opportunity to challenge it on court.

"It's ironic because I spend more time at McDermott's for funerals than I do with my own family," Ryan said with a chuckle.

The project was suspended, and was only about half done, Holbrook said.

"The biggest thing was that we were never presented with any drawings," Wilt said. "The colors are too loud and, as far as I can tell, I don't see anything that resembles a 'no smoking' message."

In the past two weeks, McDermott has erected an elaborate L-shaped stone block wall, that goes to the edge of the funeral home's property line in the parking lot and runs the length of the neighboring building. Just over six feet high and 15 feet wide, the wall is tiered, and has planter space in the middle of each level where trees will go.

Wilt said the wall was not a new idea and that the funeral home had planned for some time to do additional landscaping, "when funds were available," but conceded that after the mural went up, they decided to speed up their plans and build the wall immediately.

Holbrook was annoyed, not only because his creation will go unseen, but primarily because the message will be lost along with the hard work of the students.

"It's unethical," Holbrook said. "This is a funeral home that makes money off of people dying early from things like smoking. The idea of the project was to address the high rate of death due to tobacco and teenage and pregnant smokers."

"As an artist, it's a big blow, but I feel more for the kids because it erased their work, Holbrook said. "This group of kids was into the project from the start, and they have good raw talent. It was a pleasure working with them."

Scanlon said that, as a reward for the kids, FOR will go ahead with its planned mural dedication ceremony, to be held Saturday at the Christ Community Church in McKees Rocks, and that this experience would not make them shrinking violets for future projects.

"We came in under budget because of the hard work of the kids, so we're going to go ahead and do something else in the spring," Scanlon said. "We're going to continue mural projects in McKees Rocks and Stowe in spite of some other people's opinion of the value of public art."