By BECKY KISER
Hays Post
All five Hays city commissioners say they support a proposed historic mural to be painted on the Sternberg water tower by local artist Dennis Schiel.
Ron Mellick voted Thursday against a letter of support from the city which Schiel will utilize in applying for a grant from the Dane G. Hansen Foundation in Logan.
Mellick said he was “embarrassed that Mr. Schiel is going to Dane G. Hansen with only a letter of support from us and no financial commitment.”
Mellick noted many Hays parks and the new playground equipment that will be installed at the Bickle-Schmidt Sports Complex have been supported by the city with financial matches.
“We have civic groups in the city that adopt city parks and regularly come to us wanting us to match their money to do improvements within the city parks, and we do that,” Mellick said.
“I wonder how many of these things would have happened if we’d only gotten a letter of support from these entities.”
“The thing I’m suggesting is that there are possibilities of using alternate resources than just immediately going to the city,” said Sandy Jacobs. “I’m not against the project.” She added that Melissa Dixon, director of the Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB), believes the mural would be a destination attraction.
“I like the project,” agreed Shaun Musil. “I just don’t like us funding it.”
“Dennis’s work is world-class and it certainly speaks to the history of our community. There’d be nothing like it in the Midwest,” Vice-Mayor Henry Schwaller said.
Schwaller agreed with Mellick’s contention made at the last commission meeting. “We spend a lot of money advertising our town on billboards and I really question the effectiveness of it because you’re going so quickly. And they make no sense. Not a problem with CVB, but they’re awful.
“This is something that is very clear and it says exactly what we are. It doesn’t say ‘Eat. Stay. Dine. Shop.’ From an artistic standpoint it’s phenomenal. It’s also great from a promotional and destination standpoint.
‘I understand you don’t like the order of this. I get that,” Schwaller said to Mellick. “But I do want to give him some options and see what happens.”
Last week Schiel presented two smaller, less expensive mural alternatives to his original design.
