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Vandalism Fears May Jail Columbus
By Derrick Nunnally, The Baton Rouge Advocate
August 2, 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."

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