A public-comment meeting over a proposal to add concrete security posts around the next Ten Commandments monument at the state Capitol was adjourned quickly Thursday after no one showed up to voice an opinion.
The first tablet listing the Ten Commandments was toppled by a driver earlier this year, less than a day after it was installed. A subcommittee of the Capitol Arts and Grounds Commission this week approved adding several 3-foot-tall concrete bollards around the base of where the next monument will be installed.
The replacement stone tablet has already been completed. Thursday's meeting dealt with public comment on the security measures, not the monument itself.
As in the case of the monument, private funds will pay for the added security measures.
Other than seven reporters, the State Capitol Police chief and the commissioners, no one showed up in the Capitol's Old Supreme Court Chamber for the 10 a.m. meeting.
"It had been made clear in the news reports Tuesday night that it was only over security," said Deputy Secretary of State Kelly Boyd when asked about the empty meeting. "I don't know that I was overly surprised."
The full commission is scheduled to consider the proposed security plans at 11 a.m. Tuesday.
Anyone wishing to leave comment can call the secretary of state's office at (501) 683-6589. No one has called the hotline, said office spokesman Danielle Fusco, but several people have emailed the office about the monument itself.
Metro on 12/08/2017