LETTER: Applauding the women who work for change
Published 1:31 pm Friday, December 20, 2019
(Tuesday) evening, after returning home from the city commission meeting, I happened to read something from the Mount Vernon Ladies Association that caught my eye and seemed quite appropriate considering the comments by Mayor Ed Burtner and Commissioner Shannon Cox to the women who came before the commission.
What I read was this: “In 1853, Louisa Bird Cunningham was traveling on the Potomac River and passed by Mount Vernon. Struck by its appearance and fearing that it would be lost to the nation for lack of upkeep, Cunningham wrote a letter to her daughter Ann Pamela Cunningham. In the letter, she commented that if the men of the United States would not save the home of its greatest citizen, perhaps it should be the responsibility of the women.”
Four women came before the commission last night in hopes of saving two sides (south and west) of the Sphar building facade.
They told the commissioners saving the outside would save the look of the historical building on the corner. The possibility of a night market was given along with other uses.
They stressed how in tearing it down, we would lose it forever. Once it is gone, it is gone.
A commissioner wondered if the facade could be rebuilt, but they were told the costs would be prohibitive. Actually, the costs to stabilize the two walls is less than what the commission paid the architect for the redesign.
Mayor Burtner seemed to say he was tired of giving people more chances to save the building that I don’t feel he ever saw the importance in saving. When he admitted several months ago to wanting to pave over Depot Street with asphalt when repairing the street was before the commission several years ago, I was horrified. I still am.
Commissioner Cox has not, to my knowledge of the meetings I have attended, exhibited any real enthusiasm for saving the building. He mentioned last night about children being hurt by falling bricks. That was a real possibility before the city put up the barricade around the structure.
I would like to ask the commission, when they bought the Sphar building six years ago, why was the roof not stabilized at that time? It is said that the roof collapse is what is destabilizing the whole thing.
I applaud this group of young progressive women who are working diligently to save this building and our town.
Roberta P. Newell