Newly released copies of the contract and invoices for the removal of the city’s Confederate iconography confirm it will cost the city $1.8 million.
A total of 14 pieces -- including monuments, plaques and cannons -- were removed by the company NAH LLC, before a judge ordered the operations to stop earlier this month. There’s little information available about the limited liability company, but according to the Virginia State Corporation Commission it formed in June. Invoices obtained by VPM shows NAH LLC was paid a base rate of $900,000 for the removal. The city paid an additional $180,000 per workday, totaling another $900,000.
The city’s contract with NAH LLC also shows Mayor Levar Stoney’s administration was prepared to move forward with the monument removal on July 1, as soon as a new state law went into effect giving localities power to remove their own monuments. The contract says NAH contractors were expected to be in or near the City of Richmond by June 27, and "ready to work" at 12:01 a.m. on July 1.
That day, Richmond City Council met at 11 a.m. but delayed a vote supporting Stoney’s decision to immediately remove the monuments. Using his authority under the State of Emergency, Stoney decided to move ahead without council support, sending cranes to the Stonewall Jackson statue less than an hour after the meeting adjourned.
As part of the contract signed by Stoney, the city also paid for the removal of the Arthur Ashe statue on Monument Avenue. The Ashe family had initially asked for the statue to come down, but they later decided it could stay up.
The only city-owned Confederate monument still up in Richmond is the AP Hill memorial, which sits on top of Hill’s remains. The state-owned Robert E. Lee monument also remains up in Richmond because of a lawsuit currently blocking Gov. Ralph Northam from removing it.
A private fundraiser to reimburse the city for the cost of removing the monuments has reached $30,000.
Stoney’s office didn’t immediately respond to questions about the company’s identity.
*VPM Reporter Roberto Roldan contributed to this report.
