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AUBURN - Copper John, the Auburn icon that was removed temporarily from the roof of Auburn Correctional Facility last month, is almost through his cosmetic surgery. The statue is in the final stages of being repaired and repainted in the prison's workshops.

Pete Longo and Milo Tanner, general mechanics in the prison's maintenance department, were busy Friday morning painting the statue with its first coat of blue and yellow, the state colors. A second coat will be applied, followed by a clear coat for protection. Steel structural rods that provide the statue's internal support had rotted out and were replaced.

About 10 civilian employees in the industry and maintenance departments have worked on the statue. No inmates have worked on the project, Superintendent John Burge said.

"We just felt that it was appropriate for the staff, not the inmates, to work on it," he said.

Copper John has stood sentry over the city since 1821, when he was placed on the peak of the original administration building while the building was still under construction. The original statue was carved of wood, but it was replaced in 1848 by a replica hammered out of sheet cooper by convict labor in the prison's foundry.