The Monument Relocation Committee met virtually for the second time Tuesday to discuss their plans and to answer a handful of questions pertaining to the Confederate statue’s ownership and relocation.
During the meeting, one of the five appointed committee members — Anne Damron — said she wouldn’t have accepted her appointment to the committee if she’d known there was no chance the statue would be kept on the courthouse lawn. Damron attributed her belief that the statue should remain in place to her family history.
The committee also discussed putting deadlines in place for every step they’d take, including accepting public comments, narrowing down the list of sites for relocation, and presenting a recommendation to Daviess County Fiscal Court.
Highlights from Tuesday’s meeting are provided below, as is the video in its entirety.
The next meeting will take place at 4:30 p.m. Oct. 14. The meeting can be viewed live through Daviess County Fiscal Court’s Facebook page.
Removing the monument from the courthouse lawn:
Last meeting, a couple of the committee members expressed confusion as to whether the Confederate statue absolutely had to be removed from the courthouse lawn. Those questions were put to rest Tuesday by Judge-Executive Al Mattingly and County Attorney Claud Porter.
“That decision has been made. The statue will be moved,” Committee Chair Aloma Dew said. “So when comments come in saying, ‘Don’t move it,’ those will be automatically disregarded. We do not need to keep those or look at those because that ship has sailed. We are now looking at where we’re going to put it.”
Mattingly confirmed that Fiscal Court had voted 4-0 to have the statue removed from the Daviess County Courthouse lawn.
Committee member proposes leaving:
Damron said she might not have joined the committee had she known it was “an absolutely final judgement that the statue would be removed.”
From what she’d read in the newspaper, Damron said she wasn’t aware that the Confederate statue would, without a doubt, be removed from the courthouse lawn.
“Because of my family history I thought I could bring another dimension about the history from the other side,” she said. “I would say that I am probably going to be hard to convince to move the statue because of my family history.”
Mattingly suggested Damron resign from the committee if she was against moving the statue so that someone else could be reappointed.
“It’s not in the purview of this committee to decide whether or not that statue moves,” he said. “I hate to lose your expertise and your point of view but, certainly, I’d hate to see you serving on a committee that’s eating at your insides.”
Though Dew and Committee member Tim Kline said they valued Damron’s perspective and expertise on the matter, Damron said she was worried about the statue being vandalized if relocated and that she was not a fan of rewriting history.
“If nothing else, it’s standing there to remind us, ‘Don’t do that anymore,’” Damron said.
Committee surprised by lack of public comments made so far:
Since opening up an email account for public comments, the committee said only 22 had been received so far.
“I have been very surprised [by the lack of comments],” Dew said. “We have to decide which ones have the most credence and why. I’m trying to encourage people to not just say, ‘I want you to move it.’ That doesn’t tell us anything.”
Out of the comments that had been received, Dew said Elmwood Cemetery had been suggested eight times.
Other areas mentioned in the public comments included the Owensboro Museum of Science & History (3) and The Battle of Panther Creek site at Panther Creek Park (3), while one person offered to have it moved to their own private property.
Dew said the president of the Mollie Morehead Chapter of The Daughters of the Confederacy suggested Elmwood Cemetery as well.
“She was opposed to moving it, but now that it’s being moved, this is her suggestion,” Dew said. “Cemeteries are where we honor the dead and honor people who mean a lot to us. With having the Voices of Elmwood here in Daviess County, we’ve got a really good possibility there.”
According to Dew, a lot of the public comments received by the committee came from people who have said “move it” or “don’t move it” but have provided no reasoning behind their opinion and have not included suggestions for relocation.
Public comments can be submitted via email to [email protected] or mailed to the Daviess County Courthouse.
Deadlines for public comments and recommendations to Fiscal Court:
Committee member Kenny Barr recommended they set a deadline for receiving and discussing the community’s proposals pertaining to the statue’s relocation, as well as a deadline for when the committee would submit their suggestions to Fiscal Court.
If the committee couldn’t agree on one location by the end of that deadline, then two or three recommendations could be submitted to Fiscal Court, Barr said.
The committee discussed setting a deadline for community proposals between two weeks and one months from Tuesday, but the five members ultimately decided to table the decision until the next meeting.
Ownership of the statue:
According to Mattingly and Porter, Daviess County claims ownership of the statue. Mattingly also said the committee’s charge did not involve determining ownership of the statue.
Taxpayer dollars involved in the statue’s relocation:
Mattingly confirmed that no taxpayer dollars would be involved in the statue’s relocation, estimating that the cost for moving the statue would total roughly $10,000.
