Usain Bolt’s Statue Said To Be Too EXPENSIVE
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Several places in the world have adopted statues of track and Field icon Usain Bolt as their own and the move to have more monuments of the type erected around the world seemingly has a bit of demand as one of the sculpture work is set to be hoisted in the city of Miramar, Florida but has triggered off a controversy stemming from the cost.
The South Florida Sentinel who covered the story placed the expense for the carved rock to be an amount of US $250,000 which has a Jamaican equivalent of 38 million dollars. The value of the statue based on the price put forward is said to cost more than most Olympic gold and will cause Miramar residents to pay over a quarter-million dollars in taxes to cover the amount.
Through the eyes of the Sentinel, the move is incremental as it adds to the diversity of South Florida in addition to the fact that many Jamaican families have moved to the Tri-county region for living with many ties in Miramar.
The artist who has the major responsibility of erecting the art piece is the Jamaican born Basil Watson, who has agreed to be paid in four instalments.
Even though there are persons in Miramar who applauds the move, there are others such as authority figure Winston Barnes who believes that using $250,000 to pay for the statue does not make sense since he claims the area is not a tourist magnet. A commission aspirant from the city by the name Chris Koval, claims that the money should be utilized to erect smaller statues of Native American and Black Athletes who were also an inspiration to Usain Bolt.
This, according to Koval, would have been more pleasing for everyone to look at while still giving Usain the top tier recognition that he deserves.
Some of the athletes suggested instead of one sculpture carving of Bolt are Carl Lewis, Edwin Moses, Jim Thorpe, and Florence Griffith Joyner.
Bolt is well recognized for being an eight-time Olympic gold medalist while having both records for the fastest 100-meter and 200-meter races of all time.
