Jefferson city council votes to give recently removed marker back to United Daughter of the Confederacy
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (KMIZ)
The Jefferson City Council voted in favor of a resolution that would return ownership of the recently removed Sterling Price monument to the United Daughters of the Confederacy.
It was an 8-2 vote, with councilmen Ron Fitzwater and Mark Schrieber dissenting.
This comes after the controversial monument was voted to be removed in an 8-2 vote at the council's Oct. 19 meeting. The monument was taken down the next day.
The city council meeting was held virtually because of COVID-19 recommendations according to the agenda.
The marker is currently in city-owned storage. The Missouri UDC has asked the City to return the marker to its possession and has verbally agreed the marker would be placed in the Missouri Civil War Museum in St. Louis.
Councilman Mike Lester motioned to amend the resolution to add that the council expects the marker to be placed in the museum. That amendment was added with a 7-3 vote.
"I just like to make it formal that our understanding that is what the UDC has committed at least verbally to the council," Lester said.
Councilman Fitzwater who opposed the resolution said he wanted more discussion about the next home of the marker.
"I don't remember anyone saying it needs to be taken out of our community, the message was, we want it off of public property, and even some of them suggested places it could go," Fitzwater said.
Councilman Scheiber agreed, saying there are currently discussions about other historical landmarks and trails in the city, and this decision could be premature.
"I really think it's home is here in the City of Jefferson, even if we removed it from where it originally stood," Scheiber said.
The monument was a large rock that sat at Fairmount Boulevard and Moreau Drive in Jefferson City. It marked the October 1864 decision by Confederate general Sterling Price not to attack Jefferson City, where federal troops were stationed.
The monument has been a topic of conversation and debate after the Jefferson City Human Relations Commission and the city's historic preservation commission sent letters to the city council expressing concerns in late August.
ABC17 News has reached out to the Missouri Division of the UDC, but they had no comment.
