Lowndes County supervisors approved a change order and accepted a bid for the final phase of the Confederate monument relocation during Monday’s board meeting, pushing the total costs to $133,451.

County Engineer Bob Calvert presented two bids to the board for the final phase of the relocation, which involves reassembly of the 32-foot tall marble and concrete monument at a location where unknown Confederate soldiers are buried in the southwest section of Friendship Cemetery.

Calvert recommended the board accept a bid of $49,250 from Columbus Marble Works as the lowest and best bid over a bid from Brookhaven Monument Co. for $59,125.

Prior to presenting the bids, Calvert asked for a change order in the amount of $4,500 to Columbus Marble Works’ earlier contract.

“What they found when they were taking the monument apart is that a section that was thought to be marble was mostly concrete with a marble exterior,” Calvert said. “So they have to add some concrete and that comes to $4,500 in additional costs.”

Columbus Marble Works general manager and vice president Key Blair said the additional concrete would mean only a slight delay.

The concrete foundation at the new site was poured in April, but instead of one extra layer of concrete, the job will now require two.

“I don’t think there will be much of a delay,” Blair said Monday. “We’ll make two pours and each of them need two-to-three days to cure. It’s not that big a deal.”

In February, the board awarded contracts of $31,886 to Danny’s Custom Backhoe for excavation work at the courthouse site and $47,815 to Columbus Marble Works for disassembly, storage and cleaning of the monument.

The monument was disassembled on May 22-23.

“We’ve taken it to another location for storage,” Blair said. “We’re doing some cleaning and touching up to get it ready to be moved. We expect to have the monument put up at the new sight by the end of August.”

In July 2020, the board reversed a June decision to leave the monument on the site at the courthouse where it was first erected in 1912 after a firestorm of criticism was directed at then-board president Harry Sanders over his racist comments about African Americans during the campaign to move the monument.
The county will pay for the relocation of the monument from its general funds account.

Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].