The Marietta Daily Journal – Monument in Athens for Confederate soldiers gets refurbished

ATHENS — Despite the fact its top three sections had shifted slightly askew from the marble section inscribed with the names of Athens’ Civil War dead, the Confederate monument on East Broad Street in downtown Athens is “not in bad condition,” according to Michael Trinkley, director of the Chicora Foundation, a nonprofit South Carolina-based historic and archaeological preservation organization.

Trinkley and Debi Hacker, the Chicora Foundation’s laboratory supervisor, spent more than five hours with the monument May 24, cleaning it from its granite base to the short marble spire at its top. They also reassembled and secured the top sections in the wake of local concerns about the slight shifting of the structure, attributed to vibration and other disturbances from years of traffic on East Broad Street.

Trinkley and Hacker, with assistance from a county facilities management crew and private local crane operator Toby Hines, began their work at the base of the monument at about 9 a.m. on May 24. Trinkley and Hacker used brushes and a special cleaning solution to remove biological materials that had discolored the structure over the years. According to Trinkley, the monument will, over the next few days, take on lighter colors as the cleaning solution does its work.

Shortly after 2 p.m., after spending a few minutes adjusting the topmost spire to stand straight, Trinkley and county facilities management staff member Richard Fraysher descended in their bucket cranes to mark completion of the May 24 work. As part of his contract with the county, Trinkley is providing the local government with a report outlining other work that might be needed to keep the monument in good repair.

via The Marietta Daily Journal – Monument in Athens for Confederate soldiers gets refurbished.