VANDALISM FEARS MAY JAIL COLUMBUS

The Baton Rouge Advocate, Page 1-B;2-B 
Derrick Nunnally
08/02/2001 

Christopher Columbus , 10 feet tall and made of stone, is lying low in a 
plywood box. His location was a secret until Wednesday. 

His old home, a corner at Government Street and River Road, is a field of 
mud, and Columbus is supposed to be hiding for what his protectors call 
"security reasons."

But the Metro Council's Capital Improvements Committee recommended more 
security Wednesday. Their unanimous vote, which is up for consideration by 
the full council Aug. 8, means Columbus' surroundings may become almost 
prisonlike. 

The five-member committee, chaired by Councilman Darrell Ourso, recommended a 
$3,580 addition to the $566,000 road project so Columbus can be "surrounded 
by ... 40 feet of 10-foot high fencing, with three-strand barbed wire 
security fencing on top."

The old explorer, it seems, is facing a future behind bars.

Public Works Deputy Director Jerry Klier said the cage will help keep 
Columbus safe from vandals. 

"Are you serious?" said Maury Drummond, whose interest in the matter comes 
from providing Columbus' cover. "It sounds like they're taking him to 
Angola." 

Drummond is the director of the USS. Kidd museum on River Road, and Columbus 
is lying low at the museum. About 10 feet of statue and 4 feet of pedestal 
now stand next to the museum's outside air conditioners, inside a 
steel-and-concrete fence nearly as tall as Columbus. 

"We've been trying to keep it a secret because we didn't want it to be in 
danger of being vandalized," Drummond said. 

The cover, however, was blown when the $3,580 fence showed up on the 
committee agenda.

Asked where the taxpayers' fence was being erected, Public Works Director 
Fred Raiford, who missed Wednesday's meeting, said the statue had been moved 
behind the Kidd museum. 

The statue's plywood home is off the south end of the museum. The open-ended 
crate is visible from the Mississippi River levee, but there's little hint as 
to what's inside from that vantage point. 

However, if you walk upstairs in the Kidd museum, past Drummond's office, you 
can look out a glass door and see the crown of Columbus' white marble head 
through the top of the box.

The statue was moved shortly before July 4, Drummond said, to make room for 
road construction where Columbus used to stand. The road will accommodate the 
expanded Riverside Centroplex, and also slow the traffic Columbus will watch 
once he's moved back to a reshaped plaza.

The voyager has stood at the River Road-Government Street curve since 1992, 
when the Greater Baton Rouge Italian Association raised more than $60,000 to 
donate the white marble statue to the city. Sculpted by New Orleans artist 
and Italian native Franco Alessandrini, the statue lived on a corner 
officially named "Maritime Plaza" after its dedication Oct. 11, 1992.

It commemorated the 500th anniversary of Columbus' voyage to the West Indies. 

The statue depicts the explorer with a sword in his left hand while his 
right, outstretched, holds a sextant. 

Some thought the pose showed Columbus making an unseemly hand gesture toward 
downtown. Now, his sextant points toward the construction at his former home, 
maybe 100 yards away. 

Raiford said the new steel fence is needed for security, even though he 
believes the Kidd museum lot is otherwise perfect, especially in one key 
regard.

"Otherwise, I'd have to pay for storage," Raiford said.

Drummond said he was glad to give the space, but didn't understand how it 
might not be secure.

Drummond said. "We're taking as good care of Chris as we possibly can." 

The nearly $3,600 cost to taxpayers for a fence around a statue that seems 
safe already is another issue.

Charles Scott, owner of Scott Fence USA on Highlandia Drive, estimated the 
cost of such a fence - 40 feet of 10-foot-high chain- link, four corners, 
three-strand barbed wire on top - at $1,650, installation included. 

That's with a gate, he said. No gate, and the fence would be $1,550 from his 
company.

No one at R-K Contractors LLC, the company handling the curve realignment 
project, returned The Advocate's answering-machine messages Tuesday or 
Wednesday.

Vincent Dispenza, who led the fund-raising effort to give Baton Rouge the 
Columbus statue, said he videotaped the statue's move with an understanding 
the location would be safe and mostly secret. 

While he is looking forward to the day - possibly early 2002 - the statue 
goes home to a rebuilt Maritime Plaza, Dispenza said he's happy with its home 
on the Kidd grounds as is.

"It's fenced in close, and the people with the USS. Kidd have the ability to 
take care of the matter," Dispenza said. 

"I always thought personally it was best not to mention where it is located."