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Quincy mayor defends $850,000 patron saint statues at public safety building
“People in the end will understand that it’s beautiful public art," Quincy Mayor Thomas Koch said in a radio interview.
A Quincy City Councilor is slamming two 10-foot, bronze statues of patron saints that will greet visitors at the city’s new Public Safety building, while the mayor defended the “beautiful public art.”
The Patriot Ledger first reported on the plans to add statues of St. Michael the Archangel and St. Florian, the patron saints of police and firefighters, respectively.
The statues will cost a total of $850,000 to adorn the new building, set for construction in the fall, which is one of the most expensive buildings in Quincy’s history at $175 million, the Ledger reported.
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The St. Michael’s statue, according to images obtained by the Ledger, shows the archangel atop a demon, while the St. Florian statue pours water on a burning building. The statues will adorn the facade of the building facing Sea Street.
Dan Minton, a Ward 5 City Council member and a retired police lieutenant, said those images “may not translate to contemporary times,” particularly the “violent image” of St. Michael.
“It made me think of brutal force and I don’t want citizens to connect this statue with the way our Officers treat anyone. The statue would be misleading when it comes to the QPD, where members strive to keep its citizens safe,” Minton wrote on Facebook. “The statue may not be a welcoming presence to someone already ill at ease.”
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Minton said while he received a small statue of St. Michael as a gift when he joined the force, a normal-sized statue of a police officer or simply photos would be a more welcome sight at the facade of the station.
Minton also said the council did not know about the statues when approving the project.
In a radio interview on AM Quincy, Mayor Thomas Koch defended the statutes. When asked if the City Council knew about the $850,000 statutes, Koch said “plans evolve.”
“The reality is the bottom line has not changed in the budget,” Koch said. “I think the cost is [half of one percent] of the entire project. It’s beautiful public art.”
He also said he doesn’t view the statues “specifically as religious.”
“It’s not like Tom Koch is imparting an image, trying to put on the fire, police. That image has been related to both of those services for decades across the world, not just here in Quincy,” Koch said. “I think people in the end will understand that it’s beautiful public art, and it connects with both the fire service and the police service.”
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As of Tuesday evening, a change.org petition has garnered just under 1,000 signatures to cancel the commission, calling the sculptures “a reckless misuse of our taxes.”
“Though religious subjects are not illegal, they are inappropriate for a diverse city such as Quincy,” petition author Claire Fitzmaurice wrote. “The violence portrayed on a heroic scale of St. Michael the Archangel is especially frightening and conjures images of police violence which is contrary to Quincy Police Dept’s mission of public safety.”
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