Art committee backpedals on sculpture project

CEDAR FALLS (AP) ? A public art committee is moving ahead with plans to build a 50-foot sculpture in Cedar Falls, but its funding source has changed after a backlash against the project.

The Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier reports that the project planned on a Ridgeway Avenue roundabout could cost between $200,000 and $500,000 with landscaping.

The committee?s initial plan called for $350,000 in tax-increment financing to pay for the sculpture.

But the city has since enacted $2.7 million in across-the-board cuts over the next 10 years.

Committee members say those factors and negative public comments led them to divide the project into two categories. Funding will come from a combination of private donations and money from the committee?s existing budget. About $84,000 will have to be raised from other sources.