BARRE, Vt. (AP) – Barre’s granite industry may get a chance at helping to craft a new memorial to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. after all.
Plans to have a new memorial to King, planned for the National Mall in Washington, outsourced to China have been changed after pressure from Vermont elected officials.
“It’s all good news,” Barre Mayor Thomas Lauzon said Friday after hearing from the state’s three-member congressional delegation that American granite will be used in the $100 million monument.
Lauzon said officials from the Martin Luther King Foundation in Washington, who are spearheading the effort to build the memorial, will visit Barre to learn more about the area’s capabilities in quarrying and sculpting granite.
“We have more master sculptors in Barre than anywhere else in the U.S.,” Lauzon said. He said the monument plans call for a massive amount of granite, meaning it’s likely Barre’s famed gray stone will make up at least some of the memorial.
Barre may still face stiff competition from Georgia, which, like Vermont, is a major granite producer and which is King’s home state.
Michael Briggs, spokesman for Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., said it appeared that officials with the foundation were surprised by the vehemence of the protests that resulted when it was announced a Chinese sculptor had been chosen to produce the King memorial
“I think the bottom line is that they were sensitive to the concerns that Bernie and others raised about the lack of U.S. and Vermont granite going into this monument,” said Michael Briggs, spokesman for Sen. Bernard Sanders.
Barre stone carvers and others appeared at a rally in November to protest what some called a “travesty” of awarding the contract to create the King memorial to a country with a poor human rights record.
“Dr. King spent much of his life fighting for the working people of all colors in our country,” Sanders said in a statement. He added that “it is appropriate that those working men and women provide the majority of granite for this memorial.”
Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said he was pleased “that Vermont craftspeople and stone will be given due consideration for this important work.” Rep. Peter Welch called the decision “a significant step in the right direction.”
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Information from: The Times Argus, http://www.timesargus.com/
AP-ES-12-16-07 1458EST
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