Columbus Statue Will Remain In Scotch Plains

SCOTCH PLAINS, NJ — The Christopher Columbus sculpture will remain standing outside of the Scotch Plains municipal building and police department. The Township Council unanimously voted 5 to 0 to keep the monument at its Tuesday night meeting.

The roughly 2-hour meeting included the reading of residents' written comments and residents who called in to express their opinions on both sides of the issue.

Prior to the meeting, many gathered outside the municipal building around the monument including Mayor Al Smith to show their support for preserving the statue. Smith spoke through a megaphone in favor of the statue.

"While others may have stumbled onto America it was Columbus who discovered the continent leading to among other things this great nation we live in today," Smith said as part of his speech.

The discussion was added to the agenda by Deputy Mayor Joshua Losardo following the launch of two petitions for and against the monument.

"I thought it what is the right thing to do," Losardo said at the meeting. "I thought social media, online was not the right place to have that discussion. There would be no resolution there."

Losardo noted that with so many people who signed the petition it was better to discuss it and acknowledge their thoughts.

Councilman Roshan "Roc" White introduced the vote to keep the monument and Losardo seconded the motion. All five councilmen voted in favor of it.

Scotch Plains resident and candidate for Union County Freeholder, Joseph Sarno, who launched the petition to preserve and protect the Columbus sculpture was happy with the Council's decision.

"I'm proud to have contributed in this effort to preserve and protect the Columbus Sculpture in Scotch Plains and for council to have a unanimous 5-0 supporting this effort. We had over 2,700 people sign my petition to keep this sculpture where it is today, and remind the community that Columbus's courageous journey across Atlantic 500 years ago represents so much for Italian Americans and immigrants from all countries alike who've made similar journeys to America," Sarno said.

Longtime Scotch Plains resident George Ulerio who started the petition to take down the statue of Christopher Columbus' hand was "disappointed in the board's lack of conversation and open dialogue like they said they would do before putting this to a premature vote."

"The hypocrisy of how the town hall meeting was held was clearly shown when Black voices were limited to the strict 3-minutes over the phone comments and required an address to be said, whereas written public comments with no address were allowed to be read far beyond 3 minutes we were allowed to speak for," Ulerio said. "Let it be known that boards current vote stands on the wrong side of history and as was stated last night, this conversation is not over and needs to be facilitated much better as an actual conversation were all, and more specifically Black, voices can be heard proportionately."

To see the full meeting, watch below:

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