The granite pedestal that served as the base for the Confederate monument is being given to the United Daughters of the Confederacy and will be moved to the Battle of Panther Creek site, Daviess County Judge-Executive Al Mattingly announced Thursday. The 7-foot-tall bronze sculpture of a Confederate soldier will remain the property of Fiscal Court. Mattingly said the agreement essentially ends all legal disputes about the monument.
“The agreement is … generally it’s to resolve permanently all disputed legal adviser claims between UDC and the court,” Mattingly said.
He said as part of the agreement, the UDC agreed to drop their appeal claiming ownership of both the statue and base (Daviess County Judge Lisa Payne Jones previously ruled the monument is owned by Fiscal Court).
The statue was removed from the base on May 31 and taken to the Daviess County Operations Center. No long-term plan has been announced for the statue.
The base is set to be removed from the courthouse lawn sometime before Aug. 31, barring unforeseen delays. Mattingly said it will be dropped off at the new location the same day it is removed.
If the relocation doesn’t occur by Aug. 31, however, the agreement becomes null and void unless extended.
Mattingly said county engineers are going to prepare a site for the base to sit at the Battle of Panther Creek site on U.S. 431, but that the UDC is in charge of contracting the base out to the site.
There is also a clause in the agreement that says if the base becomes untenable, the UDC has the right to relocated the base as long as it is moved outside of Daviess County limits.
