At meeting, residents plead to keep ‘Old Joe’ downtown

At a meeting to decide the “Old Joe” Confederate statue’s future Monday night, one man pledged to raise $10,000 to keep the downtown statue where it is.

About a dozen people spoke at the Alachua County Veteran Services Advisory Board meeting, all affirming their belief that the 112-year-old statue should stay where it is. The decision of what to do with the statue was referred to the board after the Matheson History Museum refused to take in the statue due to the cost of moving it, which has been estimated to be more than $36,000.

The statue, first installed in 1904, currently stands at the corner of East University Avenue and North Main Street — a reminder of Gainesville’s history as the site of a battle during the Civil War, said Vicki Van Buren, the chairwoman of the board.

Following last year’s fatal shooting of nine black church parishioners by a white man in Charleston, South Carolina, some Gainesville residents asked the county to remove the statue.

John McLean, a 61-year-old Gainesville resident whose family served in the confederacy in the Battle of Gainesville, told the board the statue should stay downtown. He offered the idea of building an accompanying statue of a union soldier.

“I think that both sides should be represented,” he said.

Another man, Joe Little, offered to raise $10,000 to make a sign clarifying the statue’s purpose.

Van Buren said the board will revisit the issue at the next meeting Nov. 14, where it could create a committee to research the statue and talk with residents before recommending whether to keep it downtown or move it to Veterans Memorial Park.

“This is not an issue we take lightly,” she said.

When:

Nov. 14

Where:

Veterans Memorial Park

Freedom Community Center

7340 SW 41 Place, Gainesville