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JAMESTOWN – A Jamestown City Councilman is expressing his concern following two separate incidents in recent months involving statues at Dow Park.
Council President Tony Dolce spoke with WNY News Now Thursday afternoon in the wake of a recent incident involving the vandalism of multiple statues. Jamestown Police say that anti-Semitic and anti-African American graffiti was sprayed onto the statues.
Dolce explains how the graffiti, along with a May incident involving another statue being stolen from the park, represents a recent trend that is abnormal when looking at the City’s history with the monuments.
“They’ve stood the test of time,” Dolce said. “It’s really kind of upsetting and disconcerting when you think about the history of those statues, going all the way back to, it was something our former Councilman Vivian Taylor and his wife Lula Taylor (a former Chautauqua County Legislature) and many other people in the community and African American community as well as some of the foundations.”
“This was a big project that stood the test of time. It’s very upsetting to have one of them stolen, and now it’s equally upsetting to have racially and derogatory things put on them.”
Dolce furthers that the City will be working to make sure that similar acts won’t happen again. He says that he has talked with Parks Manager Dan Stone about constructing a proposal for the Council to expand the number of cameras at parks throughout the City.
The Council President explains that he thinks that the topic of the vandalism and cameras will be brought up at some point during Monday evening’s Work Session. However, he adds that the earliest a purchase could be made is at the Voting Session later in July.
A rally is being held by the Jamestown Justice Coalition at Dow Park Saturday morning at 11 a.m. WNY News Now will provide live coverage on its Facebook page and mobile app.
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