WESTFIELD – The conservator who has been restoring many of Westfield’s run-down or corroded monuments and statues returned to finish the work last week after an equipment malfunction caused a delay.

Though Atlanta-based conservator Gordon Ponsford was able to return to finish some of the smaller monuments he was slated to restore, a shipping delay caused him to have to wait until at least Aug. 4 to begin again.

Ponsford has been restoring monuments in Westfield that have become corroded or damaged over time. Many such statues and monuments are made in part with copper, which can turn green over time due to oxidation. The green patina that forms is corrosive to the metals of the statue. The same chemical process famously happened to the Statue of Liberty in New York over the course of a century.

onsford had already fully restored the Gen. William Shepard statue at the Park Square Green by using a type of laser to remove the patina. He applies a wax to the statue which he then heats with a blowtorch to get it into the metal’s pores.

The laser malfunctioned earlier in July, which temporarily ended Ponsford’s work until it could be repaired. When it was repaired, it was being shipped back to Westfield by train. Due to an unexpected shipping delay, the laser was not expected to return to Westfield until Aug. 4, after the Pennysaver’s deadline, according to Graves Officer Gene Theroux, who is overseeing Ponsford’s work for the city.

In the meantime, Ponsford did work on smaller monuments that did not require the laser.

Theroux said that Ponsford’s equipment was able to remove vandalism from a zinc-based Civil War soldier statue in Pine Hill Cemetery without damaging the statue’s metal.

Ponsford also did work on monuments and plaques in Parker Memorial Park and Apremont Park. He is slated to remove the corrosion on the Civil War statue at Park Square, as well. The Civil War statue is corroded to the point that the statue is “crying” and the text of the plaque is becoming illegible.

Ponsford said that many of the monuments in Westfield appeared to have never been maintained. He said a less intensive maintenance should be done at least every three to five years. According to the city of Westfield’s own history of the Gen. Shepard statue, an acid was intentionally applied to the metal to purposefully give it the green color that Ponsford would eventually remove.

Conservators who restore statues and metal like this are rather rare, according to Ponsford. He said there are a lot of conservators who restore paintings and paper documents, but only a handful that do the kind of work he does.

Because of their relative scarcity, Georgia-based Ponsford often finds himself traveling across the United States for his work. He had previously worked in Arlington National Cemetery for 20 years.

He recalled his first job as a metal conservator in 1988, in which he restored a Confederate sculpture in Alexandria, VA. At that time, lasers like the one he uses today were not around.