A group of private citizens is financing a memorial to late commissioner Pota Coston at Kenwood Park.
The donation of $37,487 was approved by the Fayette County Board of Commissioners at its July 14 regular meeting, giving the go-ahead for the installation of a monument and memorial garden at the park to honor Coston, the first black commissioner ever elected in Fayette County. She won her seat in 2014 and died of cancer in July of 2015.
“In her short tenure as commissioner, she forged relationships across all ethnicities and party affiliations, and she demonstrated excellence, courage, and exceptional service to the citizens of Fayette County,” according to a statement read into the record at the meeting.
The monument and garden will include a natural gray granite monument, four natural gray granite cornerstones, gray granite and tile pavers; bench seating, trash receptacles, plantings; mulch, a drip-irrigation system, and a three-year maintenance plan.
The plan was presented to the board by Anita Godbee, head of the Fayette County Parks and Recreation Department.
Every commissioner supported the idea of a Coston tribute like this without reservation, although there was some discussion of how future memorials would be maintained.
The motion to proceed with this project was approved unanimously.
This proposal was handled through the Parks and Recreation Department, which has a policy in place for accepting gifts and donations in these cases. There was not a countywide policy addressing these issues until a separate agenda item at this meeting recommended by Commissioner Charles Rousseau passed just before the Coston memorial proposal was heard.
Some concerns were raised about indemnification and possible problem long-term issues, with Ognio calling the proposal a “major expansion” of the parks/rec policy. He also expressed concerns about the potential costs to the county and the amount of staff time such projects could consume.
“A lot of issues need to be clarified and specified,” said Ognio, who cast the lone dissenting vote on the motion to approve.
A proposed public participation program in association with the full plan update of the Fayette County Comprehensive Plan was approved by the board, with the appointment of one county staff member and one commissioner to the steering committee to facilitate the update’s development.
Ognio recommended Brown as the board’s representative on the committee, and that was included in the motion to approve.
