Sluice Scythe and Wedgie are getting new homes in the south of downtown.
The two sculptures will be placed on the east corners of 11th and G streets, sometimes called Klein’s Corner, based on current plans.
The sculptures were part of a yearlong loan of five granite abstract sculptures by Jim Huntington of Coupland, Texas, which have been displayed in Densmore Park in southwest Lincoln.
All five sculptures have been purchased by Lincoln patrons and these two were donated to the city.
See which pieces of public art are the most valuable in Lincoln.
The city looked for an area with pedestrian, cyclist and vehicular traffic, because the works have a high degree of finish, with varied marks and textures. They are also human scale, 8 to 10 feet in height.
The Historic Preservation Commission recently gave its blessing to that placement.
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The five sculptures were the first exhibition using a loan from an artist, an inexpensive way to get art into a community, according to Lynn Johnson, director of the city’s Parks and Recreation Department.
Truth on the campaign trail
A reader sent in campaign literature produced by Allen Simpson, who is running on the Republican ticket for Lancaster County Treasurer, which included a picture of a younger Simpson with former Gov. Mike Johanns.
The reader said the picture implied Johanns was endorsing Simpson.
Simpson said getting an award, not an endorsement, was the point of the picture.
In the picture, Simpson is getting an award from Johanns for his outstanding service as treasurer to the National Guard Association of Nebraska.
Simpson said the picture is part of his message that his military fiscal management career makes him the most qualified candidate. It is one of the many awards he's won for financial management.
Cleanup of oil plume continues
The West Haymarket Joint Public Agency is still sucking petroleum product out of the ground near Canopy Lofts, the last of the environmental cleanup work on land that used to be a railyard.
The JPA is expected to continue the cleanup contract with Kennedy/Jenks Consultants for another six months and another $15,270.
The JPA approved an accelerated pumping schedule in August that Frank Uhlarik, the city's compliance and sustainability officer, had hoped would be the last cleanup contract.
But the cleanup work is still not at the point where the state Department of Environmental Quality will allow pumping to end, Uhlarik said. He believes another six months of progress will satisfy DEQ.
The JPA can close the remediation project either because all the petroleum is gone, or because DEQ decides the city has done as much as it can to remove the diesel fuel, and the remaining product causes no harm to human health.
Since the 1980s, BNSF Railway had been monitoring and slowly extracting diesel from the site, where there was once a fueling station. More than 11,000 gallons of diesel fuel was removed before the West Haymarket redevelopment project began in 2011, according to DEQ records.