Mayor's Confederate monument removal price called 'ridiculous'

NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) - A New Orleans group accused the mayor of low-balling the costs to remove four Confederate monuments. 
     
The controversy re-ignited when Mayor Mitch Landrieu's office announced that an anonymous donor offered to pay for the estimated $144,000 removal. That estimate does not add up for Monumental Task Committee President Pierre McGraw. 
 
"Have you seen the size of that horse and how heavy that thing is and how difficult it would be to handle?" McGraw said of the P.G.T. Beauregard monument. "That's a substantial equestrian monument. I don't know where he comes up with this."

MTC cares for and pays for the upkeep of the Robert E. Lee, Beauregard, Jefferson Davis and Liberty Place monuments. Mcgraw believes removing the four will cost much more than what the mayor is quoting.

"Smells like a demolishing contract instead of a monument removal," McGraw said.

Landrieu wants the monuments out of public view. On Thursday, his office released this breakdown of how much it says it will cost to remove each:

Liberty Place - $25,437.50
Beauregard   - $39,105.00
Davis            - $32,815.20
Lee               - $46,035.00 (The Lee monument does not include removing the column the statue sits on)
 
"That's just a ridiculous quotation," McGraw said.  
            
A month ago McGraw got his own estimate from a company that has moved monuments for the city before. The cost is well above the mayor's quote at $538,000, and it doesn't include the removal of the column under the Lee statue.

Liberty Place - $90,560
Beauregard   - $164,918 
Davis            - $199,885
Lee               - $83,000

"If you're not going to take these down with kid gloves, what's the point?" McGraw asked.

McGraw admitted the cost includes storing the monuments for a month, but he said that is miniscule compared to the cost for removal.

"This is clearly an issue of how national politics have seeped into the local discussion, and the city is having a very tough discussion right now," FOX 8 Political Analyst Mike Sherman said.   
     
Sherman said this issue could turn into a judicial argument in the long run.

"It's possible other level of governments like the state is going to try and interrupt that. There could be a court challenge, but for now, the final decision rests with the New Orleans City Council," Sherman said.

The council is expected to vote on the possible removal of the monuments next month.

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