City: Time to move 10 Commandments

SANDPOINT — An outcry arose Wednesday following word that a Ten Commandments monument may be removed from Farmin Park today.

Several local residents plan to stand vigil in the park at 2 p.m. today after word spread on the Internet that the monument was scheduled to be removed. As word trickled through news feeds and phone calls, interest — and outrage — grew with each telling.

“If I still lived in Sandpoint I would have every person of faith there to surround and prevent the removal,” Harry Landers wrote under one post. “File suit regarding the removal and push hard to prevent this from ever happening again!”

City officials could not confirm whether or not the monument would indeed be removed today — they said it was a decision for monument owners the Fraternal Order of the Eagles to make. However, city attorney Scot Campbell said the city has spoken with the Eagles to determine its eventual fate.

“We said, ‘Let’s talk to the owner and see if there’s something we can do about this,’” he said.

The conversation was a preventative measure in light of similar controversies and legal battles in other cities around the country, he said. He added the city has received complaints about the monument in the past, including one letter from an as-yet unknown organization that said members were monitoring the situation.

Donated in June 1972 by the Eagles to the city, the monument has been a presence in the park for many decades. However, debate over the propriety of religious monuments in public property increased in the past decades. The Farmin Park monument proved no exception, according to former city councilwoman and clerk Helen Newton.

 “It’s been brought up many times over the years, but those calling for removal never followed through, and the city never removed it,” she said.

The placement of Ten Commandment monuments by Eagles organizations is hardly a phenomenon exclusive to Sandpoint. Beginning in the 1950s and in subsequent decades, the group donated many monuments to cities and states. In one high-profile case involving a six-foot-tall monument on the Texas Capitol grounds, the Supreme Court ruled that it did not violate the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment because of its historic and cultural nature.   

A representative from the Eagles could not be reached by press time.