ORLANDO, Fla. _ "Johnny Reb," the Confederate soldier statue removed from Orlando's Lake Eola Park this past June, is expected to start his watch in Greenwood Cemetery in October.
The statue's removal, which came just before a debate exploded over Confederate monuments across the country, is moving ahead on schedule, said Don Price, sexton of the Orlando cemetery.
Despite the national furor, Price said he hasn't heard a word from groups on either side of the debate.
"A cemetery is an equalizer," Price said. "We have Christian crosses, Celtic crosses, graves for doctors, murderers, Catholics, Buddhists ... it's a non-judgmental place."
The statue will be in the section of the cemetery set aside for Confederate veterans, which currently holds 37 Confederate dead. Nearby is a Union section of the cemetery, which has a monument erected by a Union veterans association.
To prepare for Johnny Reb's placement, Orlando's facilities department began testing soil three weeks ago to make sure no organic material or peat in the soil would tilt the statue over time. Price said this week he expects a concrete foundation will be poured in the next couple of weeks.
Following that, the concrete needs 30 days to dry before the statue can be set sometime in mid-October, according to Price. A mayor's office spokesman said the total cost of moving and repairing the statue will be $182,000.
Confederate statues and monuments have been taken down across the country in the wake of a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va., which resulted in the death of protester Heather Heyer.
While Greenwood Cemetery currently has the statue's foundation, Johnny Reb himself is being repaired after more than a century of wear and tear.
"He's showing his hundred years of age," Price said. The marble statue was first erected in 1911 on Main Street _ now Magnolia Avenue _ near the old Orange County courthouse before being moved to Lake Eola Park in 1917.
The statue has become increasingly weathered over the years and has chips that need to be patched before it's ready to rest in the cemetery, according to Price.
And it's seen more extreme damage: It's missing four fingers on one hand along with the rifle held against a shoulder from what Price suspects was a lightning strike.
The statue is being fitted with a new pair of hands along with a rifle, according to Price.
Johnny Reb isn't the only piece of Confederate iconography in Greenwood Cemetery. A Confederate cannon was moved into the cemetery from College Park Middle School shortly after it changed its name from Lee Middle School earlier this year.
