Macon leaders will vote tonight on moving Confederate statues. Here’s how to watch:
The Macon-Bibb County Board of Commissioners will consider a resolution Tuesday that could move two statues affiliated with the Confederacy to a park near Rose Hill Cemetery.
Public comments were submitted to the Clerk of Commission by noon Tuesday. The meeting will be streamed live due to the coronavirus pandemic.
- What: The Macon-Bibb Board of Commissioners will vote on moving two Confederate statues to a Macon cemetery
- When: The pre-commission meeting begins at 5 p.m., and the regular commission meeting starts at 6 p.m. The board will vote on moving the monuments during the regular meeting.
- Where: You can watch the broadcast on the Bibb County Facebok page or at the county’s website, maconbibb.us
Details about the resolution
The original resolution, sponsored by Commissioner Virgil Watkins, would develop Cotton Avenue Plaza and require the the Confederate monument of an anonymous Civil War soldier at the corner of Cotton Avenue and Second Street to be moved to Whittle Park on Riverside Drive.
During the Committee of the Whole meeting on July 14, Mayor Robert Reichert proposed an amendment to the resolution that would also move the monument located in Proudeit Park near the intersection of Poplar Street and First Street dedicated “to women of the South” to create a roundabout at the intersection of First and Poplar streets. The monument was erected by the United Daughters of the Confederacy and is debossed with the years 1861-1865, the years during which Georgia seceded from the United States, according to the resolution.
The amended resolution also includes several improvements to Rosa Parks Square, including the installation of a Rosa Parks statue, a water wall and a stage area.
The entire project would cost $5 million and would be carried out in phases starting with the development of Cotton Avenue Plaza. The Macon-Bibb County Commission believes around $3 million can be raised from private donors and grants with $900,000 coming from funds owed for the purchase of the Willie Hill Annex Building and $1.1 million that was previously allocated for infrastructure improvements in the Central City Commons project, according to the resolution.
The resolution states that moving the monuments to the new location will help protect the monuments from future vandalism, and it helps “to promote or protect the safety, health, peace, security, and general welfare of Macon- Bibb County and its inhabitants,” according to the resolution.