Activists: Resolutions Won't Relocate Monument

Breken Terry spoke with activists in Lauderdale County about relocating the confederate monument in front of the Lauderdale County Courthouse.

New information some people in florence who want to see a confederate statue moved from outside the courthouse say they don't see much help coming from a pair of resolutions the florence city council passed tuesday night.

While both of them address a future movement of the statue, these activists fear it's just a game.

Waay31's breken terry is live after speaking with activists on what's next, breken?

: activists want this statue that sits on lauderdale county property removed and the debate over who has permission to move it goes on.

Activists told me it's like hot potato, saying the lauderdale county commission and florence city council have tossed this issue back and forth for months with no real movement forward.

> betterton- this was our first official statement.

I think every single council member and the mayor expressed interest in moving the statue.

Florence mayor elect andy betterton and the rest of the florence city council members unanimously voted on two resolutions about this confederate monument.

Betterton- 1.

To ask the county commission to allow us to come on the property.

And the other to ask the alabama historical monuments commission to grant us a waiver to do so.

A 2017 alabama law makes it illegal to remove any monuments that have been in the same place for decades.this confederate monument in particular is techincally city property, given to the city by the daughters of the confederacy in the early 1900's, but it sits on county property.

Bennett- i don't see it as any new information.

I don't see any benefits to the resolutions at all.

For the last 5 months the county commission has refused to pass any resolution giving the city legal permission to remove the monument and according to the 2017 law no monument that's over 40 years old can be removed even with a waiver from the state.

Bennett- this is the same game of hot potato we've been playing for 5 months now.

Esp.

The waiver process.

We know that the committee that's assigned to approve waivers says that waivers can't apply to monuments that are over 40 years old.

So we would be automatically disqualified since ours was drafted in 1903 and then asking the county to draft a resolution.

That question has been asked over and over again and they've made it clear that won't happen.

So i don't understand why this is good news.

Activists told me they hope the city will just take the 25,000 fine and remove the monument in the middle of the night.

While that's happened in other cities across the country, officials say it's unlikely to happen here.

Live in flo bt waay31.