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Hebe meeting
Neil De Vaughn of Roseburg listens Wednesday to the Douglas County commissioners explain why they halted a planned Douglas County Museum Hebe exhibit.
Hebe may grace the Douglas County Museum, after all.
On Wednesday, Douglas County commissioners backed away from an earlier decision ordering museum Director Stacey McLaughlin to halt a planned exhibit on the Greek goddess of youth.
They told a standing-room-only crowd that came to the commissioners' weekly meeting they were now comfortable allowing the exhibit to go forward. They said they would leave the final decision to the museum's advisory board.
Commissioner Doug Robertson said he wanted to ensure that the reason behind the exhibit was to educate the public and not to fan the flames of controversy.
After speaking with McLaughlin, several members of the museum's advisory board and former Commissioner Joyce Morgan -- who formerly served as liaison commissioner for the museum -- Robertson said he was confident the educational component was the driving force behind the exhibit.
"It was purely an educational and informational display and if anything was meant to minimize the controversy and not extend it," Robertson said.
The purpose of the exhibit is to explain the history of a water fountain statue of Hebe that stood in downtown Roseburg for four years in the early 1900s, before a runaway team of horses pulling a wagon toppled the 12-foot-high statue.
The Women's Christian Temperance Union and the '95 Mental Culture Club -- now the Roseburg Woman's Club -- erected the fountain to encourage people to drink water rather than alcoholic beverages. The fountain's location at Main Street and Cass Avenue was within view of several downtown bars.
For the past two years, a group of Roseburg residents has worked to replace the fountain after the original Hebe statue could not be located. The group has been collecting money to buy a replica of the original statue by Danish sculptor Bartel Thorwaldsen.
In November, the Roseburg City Council voted 4-3 to reiterate the council's support for the project. Two years earlier, the council voted unanimously to approve placement of the replica statue in Eagle Park, at the corner of Southeast Jackson Street and Lane Avenue.
Critics of the efforts to revive Hebe cast the Greek goddess as an anti-Christian icon worshipped by pagans.
"If it was, all of us who have gnomes in our garden might be in trouble, too," Roseburg resident Vi Lewis said.
Lewis and other supporters of the move to revive Hebe point out that Christians were behind the original efforts to erect the statue and that Hebe is nothing more than a mythological being.
Jerry Smart, pastor of the Winston Foursquare Gospel Church, said during an Internet search he easily found Web sites showing Hebe as a subject of worship.
"Therein, lies the problem for me," said Smart, who nonetheless said he supported an educational display at the museum.
"At the same time, I'm uncomfortable with what this statue represents," he said.
A Jan. 20 letter from Commissioner Marilyn Kittelman, Morgan's replacement and the current liaison to the museum, told McLaughlin "the Board of Commissioners is directing you not to proceed with the exhibit on the Hebe Statue."
After the letter was issued, Kittelman and the other commissioners said the action was taken to prevent the county from being drawn into the controversy.
There was no mention that the order to stop the exhibit was a temporary one. During conversations before the directive was reported in a news story, none of the commissioners indicated that the exhibit might still be held as planned.
Following publication of a story on the situation, the office of the Board of Commissioners received dozens of calls and The News-Review has received more than 30 letters to the editor. Some people supported the decision but others were outraged the commissioners stepped in and dictated that a planned display could not be shown.
Kittelman told the audience of about 75 people who attended the meeting Wednesday that when she first spoke with McLaughlin about the exhibit, the museum director mentioned the public strife surrounding Hebe and that she was bothered that it would fuel the exhibit.
"The reason for the exhibit seemed to be more based on the controversy," Kittelman said.
She issued her letter after circulating a memo explaining her concerns to Robertson and fellow Commissioner Dan Van Slyke. They signed off on the memo and gave Kittelman authority to write the letter to McLaughlin on behalf of the Board of Commissioners itself.
"It wasn't a matter of censorship. It was a matter of seeking more information," Kittelman said.
At the meeting, Kittelman and the other commissioners defended the decision and the manner in which it was carried out. They claimed they did not violate Oregon's Public Meetings Law by not holding a public meeting on the matter and taking a formal vote.
State law defines a meeting as the convening of a governing body "for which a quorum is required in order to make a decision or to deliberate toward a decision on any matter."
In a letter to The News-Review sent Tuesday, County Attorney Paul Meyer characterized the order signed by Kittelman as an "informal policy directive" that didn't require a meeting or formal vote by the commissioners.
At the meeting, Kittelman said she was also disturbed that the advisory board wasn't involved in the planning of the exhibit and hadn't met to discuss it. Ron Sturtz, chairman of the committee, said the volunteer board has "never been involved in planning the events." That, he said, was handled by the museum's professional staff.
Although the controversy surrounding Hebe had been mentioned, Sturtz said, it was never seen as the driving force behind the exhibit. The museum did not plan to take a stand on whether the statue was good or bad, but wanted to provide residents and other museum visitors with its role in local history, he said.
"Hebe is like Wonder Woman or Superman or Spider-Man," another woman said. "I don't know why we're so excited about someone who never existed."
* You can reach reporter John Sowell at 957-4209 or by e-mail at jsowell@newsreview.info.
On Wednesday, Douglas County commissioners backed away from an earlier decision ordering museum Director Stacey McLaughlin to halt a planned exhibit on the Greek goddess of youth.
They told a standing-room-only crowd that came to the commissioners' weekly meeting they were now comfortable allowing the exhibit to go forward. They said they would leave the final decision to the museum's advisory board.
Commissioner Doug Robertson said he wanted to ensure that the reason behind the exhibit was to educate the public and not to fan the flames of controversy.
After speaking with McLaughlin, several members of the museum's advisory board and former Commissioner Joyce Morgan -- who formerly served as liaison commissioner for the museum -- Robertson said he was confident the educational component was the driving force behind the exhibit.
"It was purely an educational and informational display and if anything was meant to minimize the controversy and not extend it," Robertson said.
The purpose of the exhibit is to explain the history of a water fountain statue of Hebe that stood in downtown Roseburg for four years in the early 1900s, before a runaway team of horses pulling a wagon toppled the 12-foot-high statue.
The Women's Christian Temperance Union and the '95 Mental Culture Club -- now the Roseburg Woman's Club -- erected the fountain to encourage people to drink water rather than alcoholic beverages. The fountain's location at Main Street and Cass Avenue was within view of several downtown bars.
For the past two years, a group of Roseburg residents has worked to replace the fountain after the original Hebe statue could not be located. The group has been collecting money to buy a replica of the original statue by Danish sculptor Bartel Thorwaldsen.
In November, the Roseburg City Council voted 4-3 to reiterate the council's support for the project. Two years earlier, the council voted unanimously to approve placement of the replica statue in Eagle Park, at the corner of Southeast Jackson Street and Lane Avenue.
Critics of the efforts to revive Hebe cast the Greek goddess as an anti-Christian icon worshipped by pagans.
"If it was, all of us who have gnomes in our garden might be in trouble, too," Roseburg resident Vi Lewis said.
Lewis and other supporters of the move to revive Hebe point out that Christians were behind the original efforts to erect the statue and that Hebe is nothing more than a mythological being.
Jerry Smart, pastor of the Winston Foursquare Gospel Church, said during an Internet search he easily found Web sites showing Hebe as a subject of worship.
"Therein, lies the problem for me," said Smart, who nonetheless said he supported an educational display at the museum.
"At the same time, I'm uncomfortable with what this statue represents," he said.
A Jan. 20 letter from Commissioner Marilyn Kittelman, Morgan's replacement and the current liaison to the museum, told McLaughlin "the Board of Commissioners is directing you not to proceed with the exhibit on the Hebe Statue."
After the letter was issued, Kittelman and the other commissioners said the action was taken to prevent the county from being drawn into the controversy.
There was no mention that the order to stop the exhibit was a temporary one. During conversations before the directive was reported in a news story, none of the commissioners indicated that the exhibit might still be held as planned.
Following publication of a story on the situation, the office of the Board of Commissioners received dozens of calls and The News-Review has received more than 30 letters to the editor. Some people supported the decision but others were outraged the commissioners stepped in and dictated that a planned display could not be shown.
Kittelman told the audience of about 75 people who attended the meeting Wednesday that when she first spoke with McLaughlin about the exhibit, the museum director mentioned the public strife surrounding Hebe and that she was bothered that it would fuel the exhibit.
"The reason for the exhibit seemed to be more based on the controversy," Kittelman said.
She issued her letter after circulating a memo explaining her concerns to Robertson and fellow Commissioner Dan Van Slyke. They signed off on the memo and gave Kittelman authority to write the letter to McLaughlin on behalf of the Board of Commissioners itself.
"It wasn't a matter of censorship. It was a matter of seeking more information," Kittelman said.
At the meeting, Kittelman and the other commissioners defended the decision and the manner in which it was carried out. They claimed they did not violate Oregon's Public Meetings Law by not holding a public meeting on the matter and taking a formal vote.
State law defines a meeting as the convening of a governing body "for which a quorum is required in order to make a decision or to deliberate toward a decision on any matter."
In a letter to The News-Review sent Tuesday, County Attorney Paul Meyer characterized the order signed by Kittelman as an "informal policy directive" that didn't require a meeting or formal vote by the commissioners.
At the meeting, Kittelman said she was also disturbed that the advisory board wasn't involved in the planning of the exhibit and hadn't met to discuss it. Ron Sturtz, chairman of the committee, said the volunteer board has "never been involved in planning the events." That, he said, was handled by the museum's professional staff.
Although the controversy surrounding Hebe had been mentioned, Sturtz said, it was never seen as the driving force behind the exhibit. The museum did not plan to take a stand on whether the statue was good or bad, but wanted to provide residents and other museum visitors with its role in local history, he said.
"Hebe is like Wonder Woman or Superman or Spider-Man," another woman said. "I don't know why we're so excited about someone who never existed."
* You can reach reporter John Sowell at 957-4209 or by e-mail at jsowell@newsreview.info.
