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Donation will add bronze to library lawn project
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Beautification Committee Chairwoman Linda Dougherty told members of the Great Bend City Council Monday night that there will be some changes to the statue area that is being planned for the area around Great Bend Public Library.
However, in this time of rising prices and tight budgets, the news was both unexpected and welcomed.
Dougherty told the council that thanks to a local donation, there will be an additional bronze included in the design.
The donors — a formal announcement regarding their gift will be made later — are going to donate the proposed birding statue that Dougherty described when she met with the council earlier this month.
She said the donors saw the initial Tribune story and decided to make the donation.
“The bronze is a statue of a small girl with a bird taking flight off her hand,” according to information provided to the council earlier this month. “The committee feels that this bronze would add to the beauty of Great Bend, while embracing the ... theme of bird habitats.”
She was referencing a meeting the Great Bend Convention and Visitors Bureau had with the council earlier this year, during which Director Cris Collier outlined “Migration,” the local effort to encourage the development of bird houses and feeders in the downtown area, as well as elsewhere in the community.
It has also been decided that the bronzes will be established on the higher landscaped area around the library, which will allow the lower lawn to continue to be used for special events.
The committee is already planning for two bronzes now, but they’d like to see even more, creating a decorative bronze garden effect. “We’d love to have three, four or five up there,” Dougherty commented.
And the art will be able to be appreciated at night, too. “They’ll be lit at night and we think it will be spectacular.”
The addition to the committee’s plan was accepted by the council.
Assistant City Administrator Dawn Jaeger also reported Monday night that the Great Bend Foundation has awarded a grant in the amount of $4,500 for the Beautification Committee.