Public Discussion Tuesday About Columbus Statue In Scotch Plains

SCOTCH PLAINS, NJ — The Scotch Plains Township Council will be hosting a discussion on Tuesday night about the Christopher Colombus statue after dueling petitions were created to protect it and take it down.

The virtual council meeting will be held at 7 p.m. where residents can call in to share their comments.

The meeting will be broadcast locally on channels 22 and 34 and it will be streamed live on the Scotch Plains Facebook page. During the meeting, Mayor Al Smith will announce when residents can call into the meeting to share their comments. The phone number is 908-322-2076.

Scotch Plains Deputy Mayor Joshua Losardo asked for this topic to be added to the agenda after petitions were launched in the township to take down the statue and to save it.

Losardo is inviting those who signed the petition and wish to express their desire to remove it — as well as supporters of the monument and why it should stay — to speak at the meeting. A decision or vote on the removal of the statue is not anticipated at the meeting.

Longtime Scotch Plains resident George Ulerio started a petition to take down the statue of Christopher Columbus' hand in front of the municipal building and police department.

"We, as taxpayers of a town that is supposed to promote diversity and equality, demand that the statue be removed immediately as it promotes an atmosphere of white supremacy, imperialism, genocide, racism, and rape. Having a statue in front of the most notable building in town only perpetuates these ideas of racism and white supremacy that exist currently within our own town and this country," Ulerio said on his petition website.

For more information on Ulerio's petition click here.

Scotch Plains resident and candidate for Union County Freeholder, Joseph Sarno, launched a counter-petition to preserve and protect the Columbus sculpture in Scotch Plains after the first petition was launched.

"What [Columbus] symbolizes is a journey for our ancestors to be able to come here. He took a leap of faith," Sarno said. "It's not just Italian Americans, but all immigrants who make the journey... I understand the history against him and some of the points about why he was so bad but you have to take a step back and think he had to have some kind of guts to just start sailing west."

To sign or learn more about Sarno's petition click here.

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