Easton area residents have been squawking about the fate of a 10-foot-tall chicken sculpture.
The chicken roosts at the top of a building at Easton Iron and Metal, the scrapyard at 1100 Bushkill Drive in Easton that's been closed since January.
After a story about the scrapyard earlier this month, residents have weighed in on the fate of the statue. Two readers contacted lehighvalleylive.com because they want to buy it.
RELATED: 10-foot-tall chicken sculpture may have to leave Easton
Jim Toia, who chairs the Karl Stirner Arts Trail, said the icon should go on public display, if not on the Easton trail then somewhere else in the city.
"If the chicken can stay in Easton I think it benefits the entire community," Toia said.
Developer Jim Petrucci wanted to contact the Stein family, owners of the scrapyard, about his interest in the sculpture.
"I have some woods behind my house (and a chicken coop) that it would look good in," the developer said in an email to lehighvalleylive.com.
His company, J.G. Petrucci Co., is based in Asbury, New Jersey.
Becky Goldenberg thinks it would look good in her chicken farm on Old Easton Road in Stockertown.
Nobody wanted the chicken when sculptor Ron Keefer made it in 2000 out of a propane tank, car exhaust parts, springs, fire extinguishers and roofing materials. He got the materials from the scrapyard, and when he couldn't sell it, he brought the 500-pound chicken back there.
"If you pull the lever in the back, it pulls up the feathers like it's angry," said Ken Moyer, who worked at the scrapyard for 32 years. "He was making small chickens out of small motorcycle gas tanks. I actually have one of those."
After an 80-year run, the scrapyard is now closed for good.
Jeffery Stein, son of the scrapyard owner Jack Stein, declined to comment for this article.
Another Keefer contribution at the scrapyard is a rendering of Atlas from Greek mythology holding up an earth consisting of two bicycles and a large wheel.
Keefer made the sculpture after 9/11 and the two rectangles on its rear represent the Twin Towers.
WHAT YOU SAID
Comments on lehighvalleylive.com about the fate of the chicken statue
JODIE ALTENBACH it really should be in a museum in easton if anything at all.
Lurker Lafayette College would like to see it moved over to Lehigh's campus.
BRBRA Leave the chicken sculpture where it is.
Rudy Miller may be reached at rmiller@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @RudyMillerLV. Find Easton area news on Facebook.