There have been many stories arising from downtown merchants and others about the impact of the fire at the Pioneer Building last week. That stretch of Francis Street, and the businesses along it, remains behind the chain link fence erected to keep people out of harms way. Parking and traffic patterns have been disrupted beyond the problems created by new construction and road repairs elsewhere downtown.

And the latest winner of the Traffic Box competition will need to return to St. Joseph for some touch-up work. The sci-fi themed work appears to have suffered from phaser burns.

“Galactic Perspectives” is the name of the painting on the traffic box at 5th and Francis. Teresa Fankhauser of the Allied Arts Council says they have reached out to Bradley Daniels, the artist who created the work, and he has agreed to come back and repair the damage.

But because the traffic box is inside the fenced-in area, Fankhauser says they will have to wait, along with everyone else, until the unstable wall of the Pioneer Building, and the fence, go away.

Fankhauser says they don’t want Daniels to do any work until it’s safe to do so. “The goal is, when we’re allowed back in, is to have it repaired,” she said.

“Galactic Perspectives” was selected by the council this year as the fifth work in the traffic box series. It’s only been in place for about a month.