Iwo Jima centerpiece could be costly

Mar. 14—MONTICELLO — The city of Monticello is considering how much it's willing to shell out to acquire and preserve an iconic monument with local ties.

City administrator Terry Summers told the city council Monday that the owner of the original Iwo Jima flag-raising monument — which city officials hope to make the centerpiece of the new Freedom Park — is asking for a little over $1 million and wants a letter of intent from the city by the end of March.

Additionally, the costs of preserving the sculpture from damage could significantly raise the price tag of the project.

The rendering of the flag-raising was sculpted by Felix de Weldon and displayed in Washington, D.C., for about three years before it was replaced by a larger version that is still on display in the capital.

Monticello native and World War II Marine veteran Les Gadbury was assigned to help de Weldon finish the statue by November of 1945 after he returned to the states. One of Gadbury's main duties was building the monument's concrete base.

The statue was later bought by collector Rodney Hilton Brown.

"Staff has been working with the owner of this monument for nearing four years now, which in our world, I don't think that's very long," Summers said. "But as a private owner, that's an extremely long time. So he has asked and requested the city provide a letter of intent with an offer to purchase. ... His asking price was a little over $1 million."

The letter would not be a binding contract, he added.

Additionally, the city engaged a conservator to visit Bethel, Conn., in December and evaluate the condition of the piece, Summers said.

The inspection indicated that the original exterior material of the sculpture was cement plaster, but plaster of Paris was used for subsequent repairs.

"Plaster of Paris does not do very well in an outdoor climate," he said.

The conservator has recommended that the sculpture be housed indoors and estimated that the costs of conservation work would be $90,000 if it is kept inside and $215,000 if it is kept outside.

Summers added that the city is also looking into the cost of transporting the statue from Connecticut to the project site.

Freedom Park will be located at the southwest corner of North Market Street and Iron Horse Place.

Soil borings of the property show "a large amount of fill material" on the southern part of the site, Summers said. This means that if they acquire the sculpture, it will likely need to be placed on the northern part of the site, closer to Market Street, so that its weight can be supported.

"I don't know if you remember the master plan, but the road, the entrance road to the site kind of swept up toward Market, the statue behind it towards the tree line," he said. "Now that's kind of flipped — the statue towards the road and then the serpentine road kind of going behind it towards that tree line."

Project engineers are working on a redesign of the master plan in order to accommodate this change, and Summers has also asked them to design an enclosure to protect the sculpture from the elements as well as potential vandalism.

"We really dialed into some sort of a glass enclosure with a roof," he said.

The team provided about 10 or 12 different enclosure designs, and Summers asked for the potential price tags on three of these concepts. The rough estimates came back at $1.8 million to $2.4 million, he said.

"I asked them to go back to the drawing board and sharpen their pencils and come up with something else," Summers said. "And I have not received that yet. I got a phone call this afternoon that I should receive that yet this week, a revised design and cost estimate for that."

He added that there are two billboards near the project site, one short and one tall. Locating the sculpture near Market Street and placing it in a glass enclosure could potentially block visibility of the shorter billboard.

On the other hand, if the city were to abandon the idea of obtaining the sculpture and instead create a tall, interstate American flag, it might block the larger billboard.

"I haven't dug into the files for Adams' billboards, but they usually are created to occupy a piece of land with a permanent easement, and there's usually visibility restrictions," Summers said.

He added that the potential visibility issues are still to be determined.

Summers said that while the city had hoped to bid the project in September, he is unsure if this will happen now. However, he hopes to present the council with more information at their next meeting later this month.

In considering the matter, some council members expressed concern about the unanticipated costs for the centerpiece.

"The amount that you just discussed is astronomical," said Councilman Erik Broadrick. "But it is an entrance to this town. If you look at everywhere you come into this town, nothing's nice. So it would be pretty to have something like that, but I mean, it's just the amount. $1.8 million to do an enclosure?"

Council members also speculated that the city might also have to deal with annual maintenance costs or repairs if the enclosure is damaged.

Summers said that the city is doing its best to value-engineer the project amid the potential changes.

He also updated council members on the status of upgrades to Robert C. Burke Memorial Park.

"Some of the proposed plans include adding parking around the perimeter of the park, a bus drop-off area, a new playground, new basketball court, new pickleball court, new tennis court and outside gathering space for the residents, perhaps an amphitheater," Summers said in a previous interview. "... And of course the centerpiece, some sort of a memorialization, if you will, of Private First Class Robert C. Burke."

According to the city officials, Burke was a U.S. Marine who was killed in action on May 17, 1968, and posthumously received the Medal of Honor. At age 18, he was the youngest recipient of this honor during the Vietnam War.

Summers told the council that city staff is meeting with a relative of Burke to get her input on the project.

"The construction schedule ... it was the same timeline as Freedom Park, and we're hoping that can still go to bid in September," he said.

He said in a previous interview that the city had budgeted a little over $6 million for both park projects, which would hopefully include the cost of acquiring the sculpture.