REDMOND, OR -- Redmond's City Hall now features bronze statues celebrating the various stages of the building's history. "When we decided to make this city hall, one of the themes was to maintain some linkage to the building's past," says Redmond Mayor George Endicott. "We've done that in a few ways. If you walk around, you see all the pictures of former students, placards outside of doors that say what the office used to be. And, one of the other things that we decided to do was to capture the mascots that used to be here."

To do that, the city commissioned Redmond artist Kim Chavez to create sculptures of each mascot. "Redmond Union High had the Panthers; Redmond Junior High had the Wolf, and Evergreen Elementary had the Eagle," says Mayor Endicott.

Jackie Abslag, with the city, says, "They're 3/4 sized, life-like." Endicott says they are, in fact, quite realistic. "I literally went over and got in front of that Panther, and I squatted down and looked in his eyes, and I thought it was going to jump off that pedestal and eat me!"

Endicott says the statues' $27,500-dollar price tag was factored into the overall budget for the building's renovation. They were just installed this week, and City Councilors are expected to dedicate the sculptures later this month.

A panther, wolf and eagle can also be found in a stained glass mosaic above city hall's north staircase.