Constituents were so upset that City Manager Isaiah Hugley—who also sits on the library board but was absent the day the artwork was chosen—asked city council to consider canceling the order. At its June 14 meeting, city council chose to send the matter back to the library board, recommending that it investigate using private funds instead of tax dollars for the sculpture.
Councilor Red McDaniel said in the June 15 Ledger-Enquirer that the sculpture “looks like a piece of scrap iron stacked 30 feet high and painted,” adding that “this whole thing has the city in an uproar.” Library Board Chairman Tom Wade countered that the artwork “has the community talking about art, which is part of our educational mission,” and that artists like Paley “walk a few steps ahead of the rest of us.”
Skip Henderson, the only councilor who admitted to liking the proposed sculpture, said the library board should make the decision, not the city. “My concern is that public money is being spent without public input,” he added.
The new $50.4-million Columbus Public Library opened January 3, funded by a 1% sales tax that county voters approved in 1999.
Posted June 17, 2005.