We think that this Art Alley/public art initiative has a great deal of potential, especially when Mayor Paul Dyster’s breathtaking Boundary Waters Commemorative sculpture gets its grand dedication at the center of the Rainbow Boulevard traffic circle, just down Third Street a few blocks. Not that the classic stainless steel artistic magnum opus is breathtaking – but its $585,000 price tag sure is.
Of course, Dyster refused another work of public art when he said “no thanks” to the Tesla sculpture that the Niagara Falls City Council, the Niagara County Legislature and the Niagara Falls National Heritage Area board all passed unanimous resolutions to obtain from State Parks as a gift to the city. All he had to do was put out his hand and that priceless sculpture would be gracing downtown as you read this. But alas, as Ceretto staffer Robert Nichols said in a recently leaked email, “(Hufnagel) constantly criticizes John and the mayor.”
And then last week, as reported in the Gazette, “Nichols said the Tesla project was discussed… but it did not quality for capital funding because it did not have a municipality as a sponsor.”
What nonsense. Non-profit recipients of state legislature member items don’t need a “municipality” or “sponsor” to qualify to receive a state funding earmark. Regardless, as Nichols so clumsily revealed, Dyster didn’t want to touch either the Tesla sculpture or the proposed museum with a ten foot pole.
Not only was a hated Reporter correspondent peripherally associated with the project but, after all, there wasn’t any graft in it for him, his sidekick Ceretto or their cronies.
Ultimately, State Parks demolished the custom-built black granite pedestal supporting the internationally-renowned Krisnic statue and reinstalled it as a piece of playground equipment for tourists to further damage by climbing and clambering over it for Instagram moments.
