New rules OK’d for tributes at Capitol
Posted on Wednesday, September 10, 2008
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/adg/News/236932/
With the state Capitol grounds getting crowded, a panel chaired by Secretary of State Charlie Daniels decided on Tuesday to start a formal process for future monuments and memorials.
“I hate to use the [phrase ] ‘ weed out, ’” said Deputy Secretary of State Cathy Bradshaw of future efforts to commemorate state and national history. “But this is it. There’s no more land around the Capitol. What we’ve got now, we’ve got forever.”
The Capitol Arts and Grounds Commission unanimously approved the rules to govern future monuments and memorials.
In the past, the process was more informal, Daniels said.
The rules will clarify the steps organizations that want to build a memorial or a monument must take, he said. Today, 13 memorials and monuments dot the 22 acres surrounding the Capitol.
No application can be presented to the 10-member commission unless it first has been approved by a commission subcommittee, according to the new rules. Any application must submit plans detailing the cost, design and desired location. And a one-time 10 percent fee will be charged on the total construction costs for future maintenance.
Richard Davies, director of the Department of Parks and Tourism and a commission member, said the fee will allow the state to properly care for a memorial after its construction. For example, a memorial with a waterfall or lights will require upkeep, he said.
“Everybody likes to build something. Nobody likes to clean up after the fact,” Davies asked.
The interest earned on the fees will help form an endowment to help care for all the memorials, Daniels said.
The Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial suffered weather damage prompting the use of state money to repair it, Daniels spokesman Natasha Naragon said. That repair job persuaded the commission to consider assessing the 10 percent fee.
The fee has been paid for the last structure built, the 2005 sculpture depicting the Little Rock Nine.
The rules also dictate that any memorial be finished within two years of approval. If denied, an applicant can appeal within 90 days to the commission.
Currently, the only pending project is a memorial to firemen killed in the line of service, which won’t be affected by the new rules.
Money is still being raised for that project, Bradshaw said, adding that the fee will apply to that memorial, too.
In February, the commission unanimously denied permission for a monument in the Capitol building to commemorate infant deaths, including abortions.
The Capitol grounds have an eclectic collection of memorials dating from 1905 ’s Monument to Confederate Soldiers. Some others include a granite boulder celebrating a century of Arkansas statehood and a memorial honoring law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty.