City Council tables donation of Marine statue

The Picayune City Council tabled a decision to accept a six foot, two-thousand pound statue of a Marine soldier adorned in military dress blues that was donated to the city by local citizen Russell Foster.

A motion to accept the donated statue was made and received a second, but Councilman Larry Breland asked the council to table the request until he could receive additional information about the statue.

Director of Public Works, Eric Morris, said the statue was not of any particular soldier by name, but “commemorates our soldiers and our Marine Corp.”

Morris said the plan is to display the statue by the flag pole on Goodyear Blvd with other current monuments on display at that location.

While he said this donation was a good gesture by Foster, Breland felt that with all of the racial issues currently going on, the council should wait after reviewing more information. The picture of the statue was not included in the council members’ packet of information for the meeting.

Mayor Ed Pinero sent the photo to Breland via text as Breland has not been attending meetings in person for a long time, and thus Breland could not see the picture that was presented by Foster during the meeting.

Mayor Pinero told the council that he saw no problem in accepting the statue as it is depicted in a photo of the statue. Pinero said he did not see any Civil War or other controversial relationship to that in the picture.

Breland and council member Lynn Bumpers asked for the vote to be tabled and that request was granted by the council and the mayor.