Kadie the Cow is on the moo-ve. Here’s what we know
Columbus icon Kadie the Cow will be moo-ved.
The Columbus Council voted Tuesday to allow City Manager Isaiah Hugley to enter into an agreement with nonprofit Uptown Columbus Inc. The organization will oversee Kadie’s move from Manchester Expressway to city-owned land along Bay Avenue between 10th and 11th Street near the splashpad.
Under the terms of the agreement, the city would retain ownership of the 20-foot-tall fiberglass dairy cow while not putting any money into the project.
The nonprofit would work to raise about $32,800 for the move and to create an endowment fund to maintain Kadie for the next 10 years, Uptown Columbus President and CEO Ed Wolverton told the council last month. Wolverton told councilors Tuesday that private donors have come forward to fund the move. No money has been collected yet.
District 5 Councilor Charmaine Crabb cast the only vote against the measure. Kadie currently sits in Crabb’s district.
Crabb told councilors and members of the public during the meeting that she couldn’t support the measure, but that she established a “Kadie EnCowment fund” through the Community Foundation to care for the replica bovine indefinitely.
“We hope that (the fund) can be grown to the point where she will be perpetually cared for no matter where she is,” Crabb told Wolverton. “I (hope) that you encourage people to use the fund, so that you can use it while she’s with you, and it will be longer than 10 years.
“She’s iconic. She’s not just a piece of artwork,” she added. “She’s a piece of Columbus history.”
Kadie the Cow currently sits at 2925 Manchester Expressway, the site of the former Kinnett Dairies. She was put in place in 1967.
Kinnett was one of the last independent dairies in the southeast before the family sold it in 1998 to Parmalat, an Italian company.
Best Buy brought the old dairy plant in 2003 and announced in early 2019 that it was relocating its store away from Manchester Expressway.
Kadie’s future was uncertain for a time, but the Columbus Council approved an agreement in May 2019 allowing the city to have permanent access to maintain Kadie at her current location, at no cost to the city.
If you want to contribute to Uptown Columbus’ efforts to move Kadie, visit this website or text “KADIETHECOW” to 44-321.
This is a breaking story and will be updated.
This story was originally published April 12, 2022 at 11:14 AM with the headline "Kadie the Cow is on the moo-ve. Here’s what we know."