BEAUMONT, Texas — The Beaumont City Council voted Tuesday to remove a Confederate statue that has sat in a downtown park since 1912.
The council voted 6-1 during its Tuesday meeting to immediately remove the statue and store it in a warehouse.
Councilman Mike Getz was the only member to vote against removing the statue.
Council members Audwin Samuel and Randy Feldschau had requested that council discuss removing the statue according to a memo from city manager Kyle Hayes.
A community member would be allowed to purchase the statue once it has been removed at an estimated cost of $15,000.
During discussion council members Audwin Samuel and Mike Getz exchanged heated words before the mayor called for a recess.
As the council members headed towards each other the mayor Becky Ames quietly said "go separate ways, please. Go separate ways, cool off."
After a break the council returned and after a few minutes more discussion voted to remove the statue.
WATCH BELOW | Council members clash during discussion over statue...
(Discussion gets heated at about 3:30)
The council previously discussed the statue in August 2017 following the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville where one person was killed.
WATCH | Here's the entire discussion and vote on the issue at Tuesday's meeting..
At that time council member Mike Getz's solution was to add a plaque to go along with the statue that would make a "statement as to the horrors of the institution of slavery."
Samuel agreed with some of Getz's sentiment but said that a plaque did not go far enough.
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The decision to remove the statue comes about a week after plans to move a statue of Dick Dowling from Houston's Hermann Park to the Sabine Pass Battleground State Historic Site in Port Arthur were scrapped.
Port Arthur Mayor Thurman Bartie was angry at the plans and told the Beaumont Enterprise, "I think that’s totally disrespectful for some society to make a decision for something to be placed here during a time that we are in civil unrest. I would wish that they would rethink that. I’m speaking for the people of Port Arthur — not just blacks, for whites and browns and everybody."
