By Carol McCracken  (Post # 741)

Over the weekend, the controversial  mural was removed from an alcove in the  Labor Department building in Augusta and put into storage.   No one in the Governor’s office would say where it is located  or why he decided to have it suddenly removed.  A spokesman from the Labor Department told mhn.com that the mural would not be removed until a new location had been found for it.

Adrienne Bennett, an assistant  press secretary said in a statement:  “The mural has been removed and is in storage awaiting relocation to a more appropriate venue.  Workers and employers need to work together to create opportunity for Maine’s  50,000 unemployed.  We understand that not everyone agrees with this decision, but the Maine Department of Labor has to be focused on the job at hand.”

According to a report in the “Bangor Daily News,” a Portland attorney, Jon Beal, of the Maine Peoples’ Voting Coalition questions whether or not the Governor has the authority to remove the mural from the state government building.  MHN.com is awaiting a return call from Beal.  His wife told MHN.com that all of the information in the article is not correct.

City Councilor David Marshall who with state rep. Benjamin Chipman, had been in contact with the Governor’s office last week over the possible relocation of the mural to the Portland city hall said this afternoon:  “I feel that the Governor has made the artist and the mural famous.  I don’t support the removal of this art work and I do support the legal challenge to the Governor’s authority to remove the mural.”

Please visit posts # 740 and #739 for more background information.