Midland County commissioners have decided on an artist to finish work of art at the downtown department of Midland County Public Library, following a heated discussion at Monday’s courtroom assembly. The Commissioners’ Court opted to pay Calina Johnson a $5,000 retainer for designs that might be determined later. Johnson is a street artist from Abilene. Commissioners first discussed adding work of art to the out-of-door partitions of the library at a meeting in March. Commissioner Randy Prude of Precinct four gave a presentation at the conference on viable designs and stated the murals would value about $eighty 000. Then in a meeting a final month, the commissioners established a panel — Prude, Commissioner Luis Sanchez of Precinct three, and members of Midland’s artwork network — to oversee the production of the work of art.
The panel became the factor of rivalry among the commissioners at Monday’s assembly.
When Prude moved to rent Johnson, he said: “the committee unanimously voted to interact Calina Johnson.” Sanchez then said handiest 4 of nine contributors have been a gift at the assembly and participated in the vote. Sanchez stated he wanted to make sure the procedure was completed correctly, to which Prude replied, “it’s accurate.”
Sanchez also expressed his perception that there isn’t sufficient variety at the panel.
“How many people of coloration do you have got on that committee, sir?” he said to Prude at the meeting.
Prude did no longer answer and said, “You’re accusing 8 human beings or nine humans of being racist.”
Commissioners Robert Donnelly and Scott Ramsey stated they supported hiring Johnson due to the fact it’d add cohesion to the library’s redesign.
“We want everything to match collectively. We pointed out this earlier; it wishes to be an all-encompassing deal,” said Ramsey. “If she’s gonna try this or any artist is gonna do this, she wishes to be on the ground with the architect pronouncing, ‘those are some of my minds.’”
The motion to rent Johnson handed unanimously.
Earlier in the meeting, the commissioners mentioned changing the downtown library’s front. The front became moved from the east side to the south side of the construction whilst remodeled. Sanchez stated he’d been informed by going to the library that it’s tough to discover the brand new entrance. “It changed into introduced to our attention that many shoppers and citizens don’t recognize in which the front door is at the downtown library,” he said.
He stated there’s no lettering or graphics to discover it because of the library or show wherein the entrance is. Sanchez stated the remaining $600,000 within the library’s redecorate price range could be spent remodeling the entryway. There became $3.7 million budgeted for the task, commissioners stated at the assembly. They mentioned feasible adjustments, inclusive of including a walkway and skylights to the entrance, in addition to adding pix and signage. The commissioners tabled the dialogue, pending a layout from the architect who worked on the library’s remodeling. The next regular commissioners’ Court meeting is scheduled for nine a.M. on July 8 at the Midland County Courthouse.
