Anticipated Florence Music Heritage Statue hits snag… Despite glitch, Haddock optimistic

Sheffield’s Singing River Statue Unveiled September 23, 2012

Muscle Shoals’ singing River Statue Unveiled November 7, 2014

FLORENCE – City residents have been waiting for their statue for a few years. The statue, of course, is the shiny aluminum, 20-foot tall icon of Muscle Shoals Music. Sheffield and Muscle Shoals have theirs. Florence and Tuscumbia are hanging fire. Now it appears that a snag has developed.

According to Mayor Mickey Haddock, sculptor Audwin McGee has indicated to the city that he is raising the price for his work. When the money for the first two statues was raised, McGee created the art for $20-thousand per statue, as agreed. His contract only covered those first 2 works. As the City was preparing to move ahead with site selection and the development of engineering drawings for the statue’s mounting pad, which it was going to provide, Haddock said he got a letter from McGee indicating a rather steep price increase.

Haddock told the Quad-Cities Daily that Florence’s artwork was going to be $240-thousand. The plans call for 2 statues. $120-thousand each. The money for the project was raised from private funds, based on the cost of the 2 previous works. Haddock said that the City doesn’t have the money to make up the difference.

This has the possibility of putting the kibosh on the whole project.

Haddock said he recognizes that the first 2 statues were priced low, given the complexity of the work. For example, the aluminum that was used was of a much thicker guage than was originally expected. Working this material took a significantly longer time than was originally anticipated. The list goes on.

However, Haddock said that the artistic issues notwithstanding, the increase in price puts the project out of reach.

If the artist and the fundraisers, Bill Matthews and David Anderson, can’t work out their cost differences, or raise the additional money, there may be some other avenues to take, such as finding other sculptors to take the commission. Haddock said that it is way too early to consider that. He is hoping that the City and McGee can come to an amicable solution.