Should your tax dollars pay for religious public art?
The Edmond Visual Arts Commission voted Wednesday to continue a request for funds for a statue of Jesus with three children until the city attorney draws up guidelines for acceptable art projects.
Karen Morton, the owner of Sacred Heart Catholic Gifts at 15 S Broadway told the commission she’s raised $3,900, or half of the businesses share for the 26-inch tall statue titled “Come To Me” by Tulsa artist Rosalind Cook.
“We chose this one because of the theme downtown of statues with children,” she said. “We felt like that stayed within the concept of what is already there.”
The commission funds half of the cost of selection, display and maintenance of public art projects. Taxpayer’s dollars would fund half of the statue’s $7,800 price tag.
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Commission members were reluctant to vote on the project which was first tabled in June until city manager Steve Murdock had a chance to study and recommend public art guidelines that would address issues such as works of art which have as its primary purpose, the promotion of religion.
In May, the commission sold its stake in a statue of Moses to avoid perception it’s violating the separation of church and state.
Do we need a pedestrian bridge over Second Street?
The members of the Capital Projects and Financing Task Force this week voted to continue a request for another $260,000 for a pedestrian bridge over Second Street at Festival Market Place.
The bridge project includes a new, 165-space parking lot planned for the south side of Second Street, east of the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway tracks.
The total cost of the project is estimated at $1,050,750, according to a Benham Companies report. Mayor Dan O’Neil has said he would like to see the bridge completed in the 2008 calendar year.
So what do you think is this a bridge to nowhere or a much needed improvement to the growth of downtown. Vote in the blog poll below.
Getting Around Town
Work could begin as soon as this week on the $30 million reconstruction of Broadway Extension at the Memorial Road interchange.
Construction equipment, orange cones and barrels already are lined up along the roadway.
The project, expected to take until late 2009 or early 2010, will widen Broadway Extension to six lanes and make Kelley Avenue a straight north-south street.
Kelley now comes to a dead end on either side of Broadway Extension at Memorial Road.
OK. Follow me on this one.
There is talk around town about the road improvements getting ready to start on Kelley and the Broadway Extension. So where exactly does this initial work begin?
Will it be on the Oklahoma City Kelley, with two e’s or the other Kelly — the Edmond one with only one e?
Anyone from
If you take the east Kelley exit off Broadway, you come to a stop sign on
Now, if you are returning home from Edmond, you can take that same route and turn left on Memorial and then turn right onto Kelley. Yes you are still in OKC, but if you continue north on Kelley with two e’s you will eventually be on Kelly with one e.
If for some reason, you take the second exit off of Broadway and circle westbound onto Memorial, you will first find Oklahoma City’s Kelley with two e’s, a block west of Broadway. You still would have to go another mile to go north before you get to Edmond’s Kelly with one e.
Somewhere between the Pepsi plant and the railroad tracks an e is dropped or added depending on how you look at it. That’s somewhere south of 33rd in
