Frank Vala isn’t the only one whose mural dreams haven’t gone as planned.

Downtown Springfi eld, Inc., is running up against a deadline to complete a series of murals on buildings with the help of $50,000 in city tax increment fi nancing money.

With winter around the corner, just one of the eight planned murals has been fi nished, and there is a dispute over whether a mural of Abraham Lincoln on the side of the Alamo tavern is complete.

“The art is not fi nished – the artist contends that it’s not fi nished,” says Victoria Ringer, executive director for Downtown Springfi eld Incorporated.

Nonetheless, Ringer says that DSI has “severed ties” with Michael Mayosky, the same artist hired to create a mural at the Lincoln Depot of Lincoln’s farewell address to Springfi eld.

“It’s a time frame issue, and we didn’t want to wait any longer,” Ringer said.

Mayosky was arrested on suspicion of disorderly conduct in the summer of 2013 after an Alamo employee told him that he couldn’t paint in the middle of the night. Police were summoned at 3:40 a.m. Mayosky says that he still needs to paint surveying equipment on the Alamo mural.

“Don’t even get me started about the plaque that was supposed to come about,” Mayosky says.

Mayosky says that he needed to paint in the wee hours so that he wouldn’t get in anyone’s way. And because it is too hot to paint during daylight hours. And because he needs to concentrate.

“The reason I have to paint at night is that no one bothers me,” Mayosky says.

The city council last year approved $50,000 in TIF funding to pay for as many as eight downtown murals. The money must be spent by June of next year. Ringer says that the agreement with the city may have to be extended to the end of 2016, when legislation establishing the downtown TIF district expires. DSI has an artist, Ringer said, but lacks matching funds required in order for public money to be used.

Mayosky says that he’s now working on three other murals in the capital city.

“DSI hasn’t been able to get any more murals going…because they don’t know what they’re doing,” Mayosky said. –Bruce Rushton