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City moves closer to building memorial to Charles Mingus Jr.
Charles Mingus memorial
The Nogales City Council has proposed to dedicate the land at the corner of Western Avenue and Bejarano Street
for the future site of the Charles Mingus Memorial.Photo/Austin Counts
Posted: Friday, September 16, 2011 8:04 am Updated: 10:27 am, Tue Sep 20, 2011.
Austin Counts Nogales International
The city council is one step closer to immortalizing jazz icon and Nogales native son, Charles Mingus, after deciding
to move forward with research and development efforts on a memorial at a downtown intersection.
The proposed memorial would be located at the intersection of Western Avenue and Bejarano Street, near Grand Avenue.
Currently, the property belongs to the city as a part of the existing city cemetery.
That portion of property is considered
"a good fit" for the memorial's future site due to an existing sewer main and flood grate in the area, City Manager Shane Dille said.
"It is unlikely that (the property) would be used for anything other than public services," Dille told the NI.
Mayor Arturo Garino said he wanted to add this item to last week's council agenda for three reasons: it's important
acknowledge that Mingus was born in Nogales, the memorial site would be near Camp Little (former U.S. Army base
where Mingus' father was stationed during the 1920s), and the community would have a chance to get involved with the process.
"We should all be proud he was born in Nogales," Garino said at the Sept. 7 council meeting. "We don't have anywhere
in Nogales, AZ to identify that part of our history."
While the council has not officially dedicated the property to be used for the Mingus memorial, it did decide to push
forward with gathering information on the potential cost of the memorial.
"We have to determine a design so we can start putting numbers to the materials and the effort," Dille said.
"Then we can come up with an estimated cost."
City Engineer Juan Guerra presented nearly a half dozen potential memorial concepts designed by McGann and Associates -
a Tucson based architectural firm - to the council at the Sept. 7 meeting.
He said he estimates the cost to be around $10,000, based on previous experience with similar projects.
Garino said he would like to use public and private funds to cover the memorial's cost.
He also said he would like to see the city donate the property at Western Avenue and Bejarano Street because it
ultimately benefits Nogales' image and pays tribute to the city's most famous native.
"I want to use a combination of public and private funds because that's the way a lot of public art in other cities gets funded,
" Garino said at the meeting. "The most important thing now is to get the property itself."
Guerra said he is compiling a report showing the memorial's estimated cost and will present his findings to the council.
After that, the council is expected to vote on which memorial concept would best embody the spirit of Mingus -
while being cost effective at the same time.
Garino said he would like to see the memorial completed before the 2012 Charles Mingus Hometown Jazz Festival,
which is set for the weekend of April 20-22.
comments:
AnonymousUser posted at 11:18 am on Wed, Sep 21, 2011.
I would bet money that if this memorial was for one of their "Parientes , X-Councilman, Compadre o Comadre"
they would go all out!! Please for once, do something right for this community and give Mr. Mingus the respect
he deserves. Don't place his memorial at the cemetery and don't be cheap about it either!!
AR posted at 9:40 pm on Tue, Sep 20, 2011.
Reach out to the music communtity. If this is done properly they will support you. The city stands to make a great
deal of revenue by sponsering the Jazz Festival especially if in conjection with the memorial.
She dedicated albums to him as well as helped him out in the last years of his life.
Otherwise it seems like you are just cashing in on a dead guy who is hardly known ouitside the jazz world.
AnonymousUser posted at 5:07 pm on Tue, Sep 20, 2011.
Mr. Charles Mingus the jazz musician was born in Nogales, obviously did not die in Nogales! Why not make him a nice
memorial infront of City Hall or downtown placita, but not infront of the cemetery, come on people!! Give the man some
courtesy and respect, I believe he earned it!!! Probably the most famous person ever to come out of good old Nogales, AZ.........