Will Charity have to mooove? Or be forced off her stilts onto greener pastures? Those are some of the questions Markham councillors are grappling with ahead of a September committee meeting where residents and councillors will have a chance to air their beefs about a controversial cow statue installed last month. At a special council meeting last week, residents showed up to pressure councillors to address ongoing concerns and support for the 8-metre high sculpture that was erected in the middle of a small park on Charity Cres., in the quiet subdivision of Cathedraltown.Council voted to place the item for discussion on the agenda of the development services committee meeting on Sept. 25“It’s not going away. It is something we have to address,” said regional councillor Nirmala Armstrong, who put forward the motion at the Thursday meeting. The motion also calls for a delegation of councillors, including Armstrong and local councillor Alan Ho to meet with developer Helen Roman-Barber, who donated the sculpture, prior to the meeting. Armstrong said their aim is to explore what options are available. The stainless steel sculpture depicts Charity, a beloved show cow partly owned by Stephen Roman, who owned Romandale Farms, the land on which Cathedraltown and Cathedral of the Transfiguration now sit.His daughter, Roman-Barber, donated the statute to the city to honour her father’s investment in the world-famous cow. Initially, residents were told that the cow had grazed on the lands of Romandale Farm, and for that reason, the statute should be placed in that location. A plaque near the statue also claimed this to be true: “The city of Markham is pleased to announce the installation of a statue, Brookview Tony Charity, to commemorate an internationally award-winning Holstein cow that was raised on Romandale Farms,” it reads. But last week, the Star, discovered Charity never came to Markham, and spent her entire life at the Hanov ...
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