Renowned comic strip sleuth Dick Tracy has returned to Naperville, and his new location is expected to help keep him safe from DuPage River flood water.
A construction crane lifted the 9-foot-tall bronze Tracy sculpture from a truck, carefully swung it over the DuPage River and placed it on land between the Naperville Township building and the river Thursday morning. The statue had been in a warehouse after being removed from its original location on the south bank of the DuPage River in the Naperville Riverwalk to protect it from Water Street District construction.
As people walked and jogged in the area Thursday, some stopped to take pictures of the sculpture’s movement.
Naperville resident Dick Locher, who wrote and drew the Dick Tracy strip from 1983 to 2011, and Donald Reed, the sculptor who created the Dick Tracy statue, gathered on the bridge to marvel at the statue’s new location.
“It was like a special relative that had left town,” Locher said. “The city can rest now because he’s back in charge.”
When the sculpture was closer to the water, flooding would often leave Tracy’s feet submerged by water. On occasion, the water would reach the fictional detective’s waist.
Reed said he wasn’t nervous watching the sculpture’s transfer.
“I wasn’t too concerned because it was so professional and we knew it would be done correctly,” Reed said.
The sculpture now has a “more robust” anchoring system that consists of a new stainless steel tubing system slipped over the old system under Dick Tracy’s shoes.
Kylee Reed, Donald Reed’s daughter, will also helping spruce up the sculpture by working to brighten up the colors in the jacket and tie and working on the sculpture’s metallic details.
“We really want everything to pop again,” Kylee Reed said.
But Thursday may have been a rare chance to see Tracy until mid-December.
A wooden box will enclose the statue while crews work to install a brick plaza on the land behind the township offices. The enclosure will help protect the sculpture from any construction materials. The plaza will wrap around the front of the Naperville Township building.
“We want to create a path that goes from Naper Settlement down to the Riverwalk,” Water Street District spokeswoman Deb Newman said.
