By J.B. Smith

Tribune-Herald staff writer

Score one for the long arm of the law.

The Waco City Council gave its informal blessing Tuesday to a giant concrete Texas Ranger statue in front of the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum on Interstate 35. Project supporters said that allows them to move into high gear with raising funds and working with sculptor David Adickes on the design.

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“You have a fantastic artist, and I’m excited about anything that will bring attention to the Texas Ranger Museum,” City Councilman Randy Riggs said. “I hope this will be the one statue people compare other statues to.”

Several other council members voiced support for the project. They also voted Tuesday to accept a bronze equestrian Ranger statue, slightly larger than life-size, as a gift from businessman Clifton Robinson.

The concrete statue, called “Watching Over Texas” would depict a Texas Ranger from a century ago in a vigilant pose, with a sidearm and a rifle.

Bill Warren, chairman of the Texas Ranger museum, said design details are still in flux. Adickes’ three tabletop models of the long, tall Texan show various possible poses. The height could be about 70 feet, give or take 10 or 20 feet.

“This is very much a work in progress,” he said.

Statue supporters said they have about $235,000 in commitments for the project, which would cost an estimated $650,000. Warren said he hopes the statue can be dedicated a year from now, in time for the museum’s 40th anniversary.

“I have not talked to one person who has not been an enthusiastic supporter of this,” Warren said. “I think it’s a unique opportunity to . . . distinguish us from other Interstate 35 cities.”

Asked whether the statue effort would distract from the museum’s multimillion-dollar fundraising expansion effort, Warren said he thinks it would help by raising the museum’s visibility and distinguishing it from an upstart Ranger museum effort in Kerrville.

“We want to make sure everybody understands that Waco, Texas, is where the official museum is,” Warren said.

Size, input matters

Councilman Rick Allen said he was “totally in favor” of the statue but wondered about another possible regional rivalry: between Waco and Huntsville. Adickes designed a 67-foot Sam Houston for Huntsville, his hometown. Allen said he doesn’t want to try to steal the thunder of Sam Houston, the true colossus of Texas history.

“I don’t want to get in a shootout with Huntsville over who has the tallest statue,” he said.

Museum director Byron Johnson said Huntsville has been supportive of the project, and the sculptor wouldn’t agree to a taller statue anyway.

Johnson said he wants to make sure the Ranger statue is tall enough to be prominent from the interstate, which is elevated about 25 feet at that point. One solution might be to put the character on a tall base, he said.

Johnson said the public’s input for the design will be sought.

“One aspect is what should he be doing with his rifle,” he said in an interview. “He’s got a ’73 Winchester. We don’t want it pointed at people coming up the freeway. We want something that looks protective and watchful but not threatening.”

Additional sculpture

Meanwhile, the equestrian statue donated by Clifton Robinson will be placed at the entry drive to the museum. Created by sculptor Don Hunt, it depicts a horseback Ranger with a Texas flag.

Mayor Virginia DuPuy called the gift “extraordinary.”

It will be part of Clifton’s larger sculpture project, called “Branding the Brazos,” which will feature trail drive scenes along the river. The Ranger sculpture alone is valued at $90,000. Robinson is also supporting the larger statue project.

In other business Tuesday, the council:

* Awarded design contracts for major park and convention center improvements that Waco voters approved in the May bond election.

That includes $1.3 million to the Waco architectural firm RBDR to redesign the convention center, $78,750 to Beach & Clark of Waco to design hike-and-bike trails in 13 parks, $634,874 to EDAW of San Antonio for designing Cameron Park improvements and $248,500 to the Wallace Group of Waco for designing Cameron Park East redevelopment.

* Opted out of the state-legislated expansion of the freeport tax exemption. Cities such as Waco with freeport exemptions currently forfeit taxes on goods bound for other states. The new “super freeport” exemption would expand the exemption to all goods shipped within Texas, which could cost the city more than $1 million a year in taxes, city finance officials said. The exemptions will be automatically expanded unless cities vote to opt out.

* Awarded Waco Paving, Inc. $813,184 to reconfigure a troublesome intersection of Bosque Boulevard with the one-way pair of 11th and 12th Street. The roads will be converted to two-way streets.

jbsmith@wacotrib.com

757-5752