The bureaucratic battle over a Yoda statue on a Jonesborouh street in front of a local candy store ended Monday night with Yoda holding his ground! And he got honorary citizenship as a bonus. The Force was clearly with him.
Jonesborough city leaders, wanting to avoid any comparisons to Darth Vader, approved an Outdoor Use Permit that will allow a statue of the Star Wars character Yoda to remain on Main Street outside of the Lollipop Shop in downtown.
The City Board of Mayor and Aldermen voted unanimously to approve the permit on Monday evening, after adding it to their agenda. NewsChannel 11 provided detailed coverage of the meeting.
The statue became the subject of controversy after the city received two complaints requesting that the two-foot statue be removed from the sidewalk in front of the candy store.
Store owner Jeff Gurley claimed he had received permission from the Historic Zoning Commission in 2023, but current and former members of the commission were unable to verify that. Gurley questioned why Yoda suddenly became an issue when he had been in the same spot for several years.
“I think Yoda resonates with people for many different reasons,” he said. “Yoda represents good, and Yoda represents wisdom. We need more wisdom and we need more good every day. I think that’s a big reason why people rallied around a 900-year-old green man.”
The issue was not originally on the agenda for the Board of Mayor and Aldermen meeting, but Mayor Kelly Wolfe made a motion to add an Outdoor Use Permit that Gurley said was originally authorized in 2023.
To speed the approval process, Yoda himself made an appearance at the meeting, though he remained silent during the proceedings. (There was an unconfirmed report that Yoda did mutter “Louder actions speak than words” at one point.)
Wolfe joined Gurley and Yoda as the board voted to approve the permit.
“Yoda, you’re official,” Wolfe said after the unanimous vote. He then declared the statue an “honorary citizen” of Jonesborough.
“He’s an honorary citizen of Jonesborough,” Wolfe announced. “We adopted that tonight, but more seriously, we approved an outdoor use permit where he can stay in front of the Lollipop Shop. We think it’s a good place for Yoda. He has become a part of the town. People really like him a lot.”
“Yoda loves Main Street, and Yoda loves the outdoors,” Gurley agreed. “He did not want to go inside. There are pictures of him inside the doors and he looked very sad. Yoda was always an outdoor person, and there’s no other Main Street in the United States where Yoda would want to be as Jonesborough, Tennessee.”
As Yoda might say, “Well is all that ends well.”
Steve Gill is the publisher of TriStar Daily and is glad Yoda-gate ended without lightsabers being drawn.
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