A county in Virginia spent more than $100,000 to take down its Confederate statue and hold and event around the removal.
The Daily Progress reported Tuesday that the cost to pay a construction company for the removal in Albemarle County cost about $60,000.
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But there were also costs that included staff overtime, setting up barricades and live-streaming the event because of virus restrictions.
The dollar figure comes from a Freedom of Information Act request filed by the newspaper.
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Last month, the county removed the “At Ready” soldier statue and its base from outside its courthouse. Crews also took down two cannons, a pile of cannonballs and the lights around the monument.
The statue was the first to be removed under a law signed in April by Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam that allowed localities to choose if they want to move Confederate statues, the Washington Post reported.
Confederate monuments have long been viewed by many as symbols of white supremacy. But they’ve drawn increasing attention amid nationwide protests against racial inequality and the death of Black men in police custody.
In Charlottesville three years ago, hundreds of white supremacists gathered in part to protest the planned removal of a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee. They clashed with counterprotesters during a day of violence in which a white supremacist rammed his car through the crowd of people, killing 32-year-old Heather Heyer.
