By Mike Copeland

Tribune-Herald business editor

A 70-foot Texas Ranger statue will not get the support of the Greater Waco Chamber of Commerce board as now proposed, though members believe the statue deserves further study.

The board overwhelmingly passed a resolution Wednesday expressing apprehension about the concrete statue that would stand beside the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum near Interstate 35.

Last week, Mayor Virginia DuPuy said the Ranger statue lacks the public support to win city approval in its present form. The statue would stand on city land, so the Waco City Council would have to approve it.

Chamber president Jim Vaughan said Wednesday that he believed the chamber needed to take a stand on such a high-profile issue.

“We have an obligation to our members and to our constituency to weigh in on things that impact our community and our economy,” Vaughan said, adding he initiated discussion of the statue at Wednesday’s board meeting and members hashed out the resolution’s wording.

That resolution states: “The board has significant concerns with the Texas Ranger statue proposed by the Texas Ranger Sculpture Committee and believes that it needs further study to ensure that the statue honors the Texas Rangers but does not brand the city of Waco.”

Size matters

The resolution does not mention the proposed height of the statue, “but you could conclude that size was a factor,” Vaughan said.

The proposed 60-foot sculpture with a 10-foot base has come under fire from some who believe its size would become an embarrassment for Waco.

Vaughan said chamber leaders discussed the proposed statue during a retreat at Horseshoe Bay Resort in early November. The subject came up again at December’s board meeting.

Vaughan said he has met twice with Bill Warren, who leads a committee hoping to get the $650,000 statue built with donations, and once with Byron Johnson, executive director of the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum.

Warren made a presentation to the chamber board Wednesday before board members drafted their resolution. Vaughan said he will forward copies of the statement to Warren and DuPuy.

The chamber has launched an economic development strategy called Challenge Greater Waco, and it includes “branding” the city. A local marketing firm came up with a campaign titled “Waco We Do” that is part of the chamber’s branding initiative.

Vaughan said Waco “wants to be known for something,” but the board is wary of a 70-foot Ranger statue becoming its symbol.

Warren, contacted later Wednesday, said he does not fully understand the board’s statement and hopes to get a clarification.

“On one hand, I think you could certainly say that being branded a Texas Ranger town would be pretty complimentary. The Rangers are an international symbol,” Warren said. “It’s better than some of the symbols we have now: David Koresh, a tornado and a sunken boat.”

Warren added, “Certainly, we want to listen to the community.”

He said the results of a recent public survey on the statue have been sent to sculptor David Adickes, and the statue committee will weigh the city and the chamber’s views.

“The size is not set in stone by any means,” said Warren, who hopes to make a final recommendation to the city council Feb. 5.

Changes in design

Through a Web site and comment boxes at City Hall and the Ranger museum, the statue group got 443 written and e-mailed comments about the statue. About 29 percent gave unqualified support, about 37 percent opposed the statue in any form, and about 35 percent said the statue needs revision to be acceptable. Of that last group, about 54 percent said the statue needs to be smaller, about 24 percent favored design revisions, and about 23 percent asked for both.

“We should honor the Rangers, but it’s a matter of doing it in a way that doesn’t cause image problems for Waco,” said chamber board member Kathy Schroeder, vice president of residential services at Coldwell Banker Jim Stewart Realtors. “We need to find some way to make the statue complementary to the other museums, the city of Waco and Baylor University. Should it be smaller? That’s one of the things up for discussion. I see us doing more fact-finding.”

Vaughan said the chamber is willing to meet with anyone to discuss the statue or to arrange meetings. He said board members expressed support for the Texas Rangers and the Ranger museum but had reservations about the statue as now proposed.

Branding Waco

David Smith, a chamber board member and president of Central National Bank, said the statue issue is a prickly one.

“There is so much support and admiration for the Texas Ranger museum, which is a wonderful asset,” Smith said. “But with a statue that size, at that location, how do you distinguish between branding the museum and branding Waco?”

Board member Tate Christensen, president of Barsh Construction, said Warren’s presentation impressed him. Still, he voted for the resolution that holds off on giving support to the project.

“At this point, I’m riding the fence,” Christensen said. “I see good ideas coming out of both sides, and I would kind of like to see the final arguments played out, the biggest one being size.”

Randy Robertson, a chamber board member whose marketing firm, Innovation, came up with the Waco We Do campaign, missed Wednesday’s board meeting because of a prior commitment.

But he later called the wording of the resolution “a good statement to have.” He said quality, not size, should dictate whether a statue is placed next to Interstate 35 at the Texas Ranger museum.

“We need to be very careful about how we proceed,” he added. “A quality statue could be 15 to 20 feet high or 50 to 60 feet high. But a mistake at 60 feet is a lot more obvious than a mistake at 20 feet.”

Anything built “must be tastefully done,” said David Lacy, chairman of the chamber board and president of Community Bank & Trust.

He wants additional community input, saying: “The more people who have a chance to comment, the better. And the more people who have a chance to see Bill Warren’s presentation, the better.”

mcopeland@wacotrib.com

757-5736