Photo by Graham Cullen An unidentified Parks and Recreation worker cuts down one of the three effigies in Baker Park, hours after Mayor Jeff Holtzinger told media the decorations would not come down early.

Holtzinger made statements earlier in the day that he would keep the dummies up until a Frederick Parks and Recreation Department's Halloween event had concluded Friday evening.

But he relented when he heard more complaints that the display was racially insensitive.

"That's the last thing we are," he said. "We are a friendly and welcoming city. Attempts to portray us as anything but that really wasn't worth the risk."

Instead, the scariness of the dummies will be enhanced, and they will be placed on a park bench and near trees somewhere else in the park, he said.

Guy Djoken, president of the local branch of the NAACP, had called for Holtzinger to take down the dummies since Thursday, as they hung from a willow tree next to Carroll Creek near College Avenue.

Djoken said he received dozens of calls and some e-mails from people who found the dummies offensive and insensitive to the reality of historical lynching.

"I'd like to commend him for making that decision," he said. "I would like to see the community move forward."

Earlier in the day, Djoken said if the display had been part of a Halloween celebration in a different nation with a different historical context, perhaps they would not have drawn such criticism.

But given race relations in the United States, Djoken said he believed it important they be taken down.

The display was also unfortunate, Djoken said, in light of city's recognition of local and historically significant African-Americans planned for November. These include the dedication of Lord Nickens Street, the Bernard Brown Community Center and the Dred and Harriet Scott plaque, he said.

John Pierson, a Hood College student passing by the dummies Friday, said he was not offended, but could understand why they would be a problem for others.

"It's just part of the Halloween thing," he said. "Some people like Halloween, some don't."

Holtzinger said the dummies were simply part of a Halloween display and meant to be fun, not to offend or scare anyone's children.

He said he'd spoken with people at the Parks and Recreation Department and told them they need to rethink how they plan Halloween events in the future.

Nevertheless, Holtzinger said he didn't believe the dummies replicated a hanging, or represented a desire for public hangings in Frederick , or a historical reference to lynching.

He cited the fact that the city put $20,000 toward the Scott plaque. "Notwithstanding those efforts, Guy (Djoken) got it to look like we're some horrible racist community and that really bothers me," Holtzinger said. "I don't think that serves the community he's working for."

Now "I hope we don't get any complaints from the zombie association," he said.

Alderwoman Donna Kuzemchak said though she'd been in and out of the office over the past few days attending to preparations for her son's wedding, she'd been told about complaints about the dummies.

Kuzemchak said she told representatives with the city's Parks and Recreation Department that something had to be done about the dummies, but that her suggestions were brushed aside.

"Just the fact that we knew there had been complaints, I would have hoped something would have happened," she said.