CELORON, N.Y. -- The Chautauqua County village of Celoron has done an about face and decided to leave the statue of Lucille Ball as is.
Last week, it announced it was only going to fix the statue from the neck up after a community uproar over Lucy's face.
"To try to alter the statue now, you'd be changing history and you'd be changing the value of the artpeice," said Mayor Scott Schrecengost, I-Celoron.
On Monday, the board voted to build a new statue and will continue to raise money for it online. Schrecengost will now form a committee, after receiving dozens of offers to sculpt a new one.
"But as far as the village goes, being her hometown, we really need to have a better piece down here for the Memorial Park," said Schrecengost.
Lucy fans and curiosity seekers traveled from all over on Tuesday, snapping pictures and taking selfies.
"It's an oddity. Didn't realize its been here for six years, and all of a sudden it starts coming up, and I figured well it's something in your backyard, you got to go take a look and see what the fuss is all about," said Ron Vetter, Dunkirk.
The statue has captured the attention of Hollywood and Comedy Central's show @midnight," where host Chris Hardwick asked, "They're going to tear that nightmare out of the earth, right?
The show tapes on the old "I Love Lucy" soundstage, and now the host wants the statue.
"I promise you, if we're able to get that Lucy statue it will have a permanent home on this stage where it belongs," said Hardwick.
While the village says it will consider Comedy Central's offer to ship the statue to Hollywood, Schrenegost said he thinks he'd like Lucy to stay local.
"Whether it stayed in the village or if it ended up in the Lucy Museum. We'd hate to see it go anywhere else," said Schrecengost.
The village will discuss the issue at a special meeting set for 10 a.m. on Monday, April 27.