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Board OKs Restoring Wisconsin Capitol Statues, Launching Money Drive

Associated Press

   MADISON, WIS. - The board that approves repairs at the state Capitol
   overwhelmingly agreed Monday to restore by spring two statues that
   protesters ripped down last month during a wild night ofprotests
   againstracist police.

   The state Capitol and Executive Residence Board voted unanimously to
   repair statues of Col. Hans ChristianHeg, a Wisconsin abolitionist
   killed in combat during the Civil War, and a woman embodying the
   state's Forward motto.

   "We've got to fix this stuff," Republican state Sen. Luther Olsen, a
   member of the board, said. "It's just a dirty rotten shame this stuff
   had to be defaced and damaged but that's the world we're living in so
   let's get it fixed."

   Photos the state Department of Administration provided to the board
   show protesters broke off a leg and tore off the head off the
   9-foot-6-inch tallHegstatue. The head is still missing, said
   PaulaVeltum, DOA's deputy facilities administrator. The agency plans to
   build a new head by recasting the head of a similarHegstatue in the
   town of Norway. The 7-foot Forward statue, meanwhile, was scratched and
   dented. One of its fingers was broken off.

   DOA is still compiling a cost estimate,Veltumtold the board. The
   Wisconsin Historical Society plans to start a fundraising drive to
   raise $50,000 to offset the insurance deductible, she said. The board
   signed off on that effort unanimously as well.

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