Bringing Down Robert E. Lee Cost Dallas Taxpayers Hundreds of Thousands

The fall of Gen. Robert E. Lee's statue from an Oak Lawn park will cost taxpayers more than $450,000.The final bill comes next week when council members will vote on an agenda item to approve the spending of no more than $375,000 on the September removal and storage. City officials have already approved more than $85,000 in statue-related expenses through administrative actions. Those types of expenditures do not require council approval.Equipment and Building Services Director Errick Thompson said that the costs reflect "all that coordination and logistics and planning and equipment and labor" needed to move the statue into storage at Hensley Field. Thompson said the cost was significantly increased by a saga of stops and starts and threats and a deadly accident.But one more cost remained unclear Monday: any extraordinary security costs -- such as police overtime -- required to protect the statue and the park.  Continue reading...