Plans For George H.W. Bush Statue In Greenwich Hit Snag

GREENWICH, CT — Plans to erect a statue of President George H.W. Bush in Greenwich were dealt a setback this week when the Representative Town Meeting voted to reject a gift from a town resident to design, construct and install the monument at 290 Greenwich Ave.

The RTM is required to examine gifts worth over $50,000. A motion to postpone the item indefinitely failed by a vote of 86 in favor, 104 against, and five abstentions, with members indicating they wanted to vote outright on the merits. That vote was ultimately 81 in favor of the gift, with 110 opposed and five abstentions.

Former state Sen. L. Scott Frantz (R-36) offered the gift as a tribute to Bush, the former president who spent his formative years in Greenwich, when his father, Prescott Bush, served as a U.S. Senator from Connecticut.

Bush attended Greenwich Country Day School, and also met his wife of 73 years, Barbara, at a dance in town.

When Bush turned 18, he enlisted in the Navy and eventually flew 58 combat missions during World War II, his official White House biography says.

During one mission over the Pacific Ocean, Bush was shot down by Japanese anti-aircraft fire, and he was rescued from the water by a U.S. submarine, according to his bio.

Bush was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for bravery in action.

Bush served as the CIA director, ambassador to the United Nations and vice president before he was elected as the 41st president of the United States in 1988. He lost a re-election bid in 1992 to Bill Clinton.

Bush died on Nov. 30, 2018, at the age of 94.

The RTM considered a substitute resolution for the gift, which lowered the value of the statue from $200,000 to $100,000, made the gift the statue and not a specific dollar amount, and removed references to "other donors," according to RTM Budget Overview Committee Chair James Waters.

The statue would have been built in Florida for about $65,000, and it would have cost roughly $8,000 to install, Waters said. A maintenance fund was also part of Frantz's donation, with actual maintenance going under the town's responsibility.

District 8 Chair Cheryl Moss, who put forward the motion to postpone, said her district's concerns were not with honoring Bush, but with the proposed location and the entire process.

Previous plans called for the statue to be erected just off the sidewalk at 290 Greenwich Ave. During the approval process, Planning & Zoning Commissioners had concerns about an overcrowding situation at that location, as there are existing monuments in the area that's known as Veterans Plaza Park.

Following recommendations from the commission, the proposed location was moved to the planting circle, and the plans were ultimately unanimously approved by the commission last December.

Moss argued that placing a permanent statue on the Havemeyer Building property could limit future redevelopment options for the site. The town is currently looking at how to repurpose the building and move Board of Education operations to a new location.

"A permanent installation of this nature could limit future redevelopment, constrain the functional and aesthetic options for the property, and might ultimately be seen as an impediment rather than an asset," Moss said.

Moss said her district felt the site emerged largely through a "process of elimination," and she contended that key stakeholders, including the Board of Education, were not "meaningfully consulted."

Additionally, she said Greenwich's public art policy was not followed because the Cultural Arts Advisory Committee never reviewed the proposal.

Moss called for additional public outreach, stakeholder engagement and consideration of alternative locations before the town accepts the gift.

Scott Kalb of District 7 urged fellow RTM members to reject the motion to postpone indefinitely, and instead pursue a vote on the merits of the item.

"When you vote to postpone indefinitely, you're sending a different kind of message. You're actually voting to sort of kill an item, and that's not consistent with this view that we weren't actually part of the process and we didn't have a chance to also see that it went through the proper channels," he said.

Lucy von Brachel, an RTM member from District 4, said, "A permanent memorial to a president and a veteran raised in Greenwich should be something to celebrate and invite the community into."

"If the first Selectmen's public art policy had been followed, experts from the Bruce Museum, the Arts Council, and the Historical Society would have been involved. The public would have had a role. We would have avoided some of the concerns raised tonight," she noted. "This gift has the best intentions, but not following the policy has me concerned about whether the end result will be as special as it should be."

Von Brachel claimed there was no call for artists or sculptors for the statue.

"The bronze will be cast from a 3D rendering of a painting pulled from the internet - a Jeffrey Bass portrait used for the cover of [presidential historian] John Meacham's biography," she said, noting Bass granted permission and waived his fee to the town to use his work.

"To honor George Bush and the artist's work it will be based on, I believe, we should pause and seek guidance from professionals at our art and history organizations," she added.

First Selectman Fred Camillo, a proponent of the statue and proposed location, told the RTM the town has followed the process, and that "every single box has been checked."

"We went to the Historic District Commission several times. They voted unanimously for this. We listened to their thoughts. Lots of people in the public had the chance to speak, and some did. Then we went to Planning & Zoning. Again, unanimous," he said.

Camillo said other locations were looked at, but the chosen area made the most sense. On resident suggestions that Town Hall was a better location, Camillo said Bush had no connection to the building, which previously served as Greenwich High School.

In the committee reports issued before debate, Parks & Rec. Committee Chair Myra Klockenbrink said, "The sense is that if the statue is rejected until the future use of the Havemeyer Building was determined, the donor would withdraw his offer."

Camillo noted that Frantz offered to add money to a fund to move any Bush statue should issues arise in the future.

"If I were standing before you tonight, saying we want to put a statue of a young boy who was 18-years-old and was the youngest fighter pilot in WWII, and flew 58 combat missions, and was shot down, I think it would be a 230-0 vote," Camillo said. "Let's do this in honor of a great man and a great American."

The RTM then voted down the acceptance of the gift.