Mayor wants an old steel tiger in front of a new City Hall

In Key West, a giant painted buoy marks the Southernmost Point and an oversized dog sculpture is outside the National Weather Service office.

And when the $19 million new City Hall opens where the 1920s-era Glynn Archer School once stood, the old school mascot — a colorful steel tiger welded together by high school kids in the 1980s — needs to return to its corner, Mayor Craig Cates says.

“The tiger should return to its rightful place of greeting residents and visitors at the corner of White and United streets,” the proposal reads, but it also gives City Manager Jim Scholl direction to put it back in its original spot or “as near as possible to its former location.”

Cates wants the City Commission to settle once and for all where the tiger will go, as some locals were hoping it would go outside Horace O’Bryant School, which absorbed the Glynn Archer Elementary grades. But others, including former City Commissioner Tony Yaniz, cried foul when the tiger’s spot was being challenged.

The seven-member commission will vote on Cates’ proposed tiger resolution at its Tuesday meeting, which starts at 6 p.m. at Old City Hall, 510 Greene St.

This story was originally published October 16, 2016 at 8:26 AM with the headline "Mayor wants an old steel tiger in front of a new City Hall."