Published: January 27, 2009 08:36 am      

County OKs study into U.S. Constitution monument idea

CUMBERLAND — The Allegany County commissioners have given a Garrett County man permission to move forward with an idea to put a monument to the U.S. Constitution on the Allegany County courthouse lawn on Washington Street.

Jeff Davis, an emergency room physician living in Swanton, has lobbied for years for the commissioners to remove the Ten Commandments monument. That effort was successful — albeit temporarily — before the monument was put back in its original place. His effort then focused on building a monument to the U.S. Constitution.

More than surprised, “I’m shocked,” Davis, founder of Citizens for a Secular Government, said of the announcement. “They’ve been turning me down” for years.

In April, Davis and Veronica Mingolelli of Cumberland spoke to the commissioners during a public meeting. Davis said that appearance was a last-ditch effort to persuade the commissioners of his legal right to construct a monument honoring the U.S. Constitution before pursuing legal action.

On Monday, Commissioner Jim Stakem, Davis and others will study the project and determine if it’s feasible. Davis estimates the project would cost approximately $2,400 for the 4-foot by 6-foot granite monument. The proposed 138-word inscription would highlight the U.S. Constitution as a “social contract ... forged as a secular document that was intended to form a more perfect union and to protect the liberties of all its people.”

“Legally, he’s got the right to do it,” Stakem said, adding that details including “how big, where and what’s going to be on it” still needed to be discussed.

“If we’re going to do it, there has got to be some guidelines,” Stakem said. “If it’s about honoring the Constitution, I don’t know anybody who’d have a problem with that.”

To help foster the next steps, Barry Levine, assistant county attorney, is coordinating the creation of an advisory committee to research various details of a potential project. Letters to people who have experience in researching such issues or who could be interested in serving on the committee have been mailed.

Davis said he’d like to be a committee member and he said Mingolelli also has expressed interest in serving. Other members could include representatives of the Maryland Historic Trust, Allegany Arts Council and the county Department of Public Works.

In November 2007, Davis advocated for a monument to the Constitution during a public meeting with the county commissioners. The commissioners expressed a concern about a crowded courthouse lawn, as the Ten Commandments monument already was there and work was under way to bring a new George Washington memorial statue to the southeast corner of the lawn.

Stakem told Davis then that the commission would “never say never.”

One “never” Stakem said he’d stick to is that the Ten Commandments monument would “never (be removed) under these three commissioners’ watch.”

The process to study the concept of a monument to the U.S. Constitution, Stakem said, “has nothing to do with removing the Ten Commandments.”

That was, however, Davis’ original goal and preferred route to a resolution.

“My preference would have been, and still is, (that) they would not keep the Ten Commandments on the courthouse lawn,” Davis said. “I don’t think ... it belongs there. A religious monument does not belong on government property.”

Contact Kevin Spradlin at kspradlin@times-news.com.