The Corvallis Police Department calls it criminal mischief. The Parks and Recreation Department calls it graffiti.

Local skateboarders, however, call it cool.

Someone recently — and secretly — painted the giant bowl at the Corvallis Skate Park green. Cody Passon, a regular skater at the park at 109 S.W. B Avenue, said the paint covers up a lot of obscene graffiti ranging from cartoons of body parts to a Nazi swastika.

Karen Emery, director of the Corvallis Parks and Recreation Department, said it will cost at least $500 to undo the paint job. “We try to remove graffiti as soon as possible, and we consider this graffiti,” she said.

That’s ridiculous, said Passon, 17. The bowl wasn’t even painted before. “This is a lot better,” he said. “What color are they going to paint it? Cement?”

Another skater, Juan de la Vega, 17, also likes the new paint job. “I think they should leave it like this,” he said. “I think it’s a lot brighter at night. It’s smoother and easier to clear.”

Don Johnson, 15, said $500 is a waste of the city’s money. “They need to put in lights before they do anything else,” he said.

He knows the skate park well, he added. “This is where I live.”

Whoever did the painting may not have followed the law but did right by the skaters, Passon said. “They obviously cared about all the crap that was there before,” he said.

City workers discovered the paint job Oct. 23 when they went to the park to clean the bowl. The painting was done sometime during the previous week. If caught, the painter could face charges of criminal mischief.

Doug Glavich of the Benton County Skateboarding Alliance sees nothing wrong with what the phantom painter did. “It was a nice surprise,” he said. “It actually looks better.”