Reagan lifeguard statue stalled

Author outside Dixon

Yes, Dixon has two Reagan statues already. But it needs this third one, if only to counteract the many expected Illinois temples to Dear Leader Obama once he leaves office.

From the Chicago Tribune:

Three years ago, Ronald Reagan enthusiasts in his boyhood hometown of Dixon, Ill., started a drive to place a statue depicting the former president as a lifeguard in the park where he held that job for seven summers.

Then the man leading the effort, Dixon Mayor Jim Burke, died in February 2016, and the campaign for the lifeguard statue stalled. That's where it has remained.

"He was our big gun," John Weitzel, a supporter of the statue idea and lifelong Dixon resident, said of Burke. "It's a great idea and a wonderful plan that just went off into limbo and nobody would pick up the baton. It's a shame."

Burke started the statue drive in 2013, a year before he announced he would not seek re-election to a fifth term. He had raised about $7,000 for a tentative design of what was estimated to be a $200,000 privately funded project to create and erect the statue along the banks of the Rock River north of town.