Following a public hearing last Tuesday night, Graham’s city council voted 4-1 this week to restore seven benches that for years had been located along the sidewalks downtown but later were removed.
Mayor Chelsea Dickey and council members Bobby Chin, Bonnie Whitaker, and Jim Young voted in favor of restoring the benches. Mayor pro tem Ricky Hall voted against.
When the issue first arose in March, Hall had weighed in, saying the benches clutter the downtown and that vagrants frequently use the bathroom on the benches, with then requires city staff time to clean up.
Dickey had asked the council to consider restoring the benches earlier this spring, pointing to the warming weather.
Though Chin and Hall both previously described the benches as a magnet for vagrants, the council ultimately agreed to resume an earlier discussion at their May meeting about the possibility of restoring some of the benches that were once located along sidewalks in downtown Graham.
Former Graham Talley recalled during the council meeting in March that there had been “a lot of complaints about the benches” during her previous tenure on the council. She pointed to people “smoking weed” on the benches and problems with people with mental illness.
Talley said she didn’t have a problem with a bench in front of one of the businesses she rents out, which is well lit, she told the council in March that the majority of complaints came from other downtown business owners who’d protested having the benches outside their storefronts.
Talley subsequently elaborated for The Alamance News last week about why she’d interjected during the discussion about the benches in March. She also spoke during a public hearing that the city council held on the proposal last Tuesday night.
“I was concerned that the council was going to vote on it without even hearing from the community,” Talley told the newspaper Tuesday night. “It was not on the agenda last time and, had I not been there to intercede, I do believe they would have just decided with[out] any public notice…I ran out of time but if public benches were put back out, [they] have everything to do with staging and need.
“There’s no seating at all on the McClure side of Main [Street] except for Suttons, which are usually full during lunch,” Talley said. “I also spoke to many businesses and also took [pictures] of where we have little seating. I also think that the businesses want to work with the city staff on issues like this so what does it hurt to ask what businesses are [okay] with, as long as it doesn’t create a deficit in seating.
“Anyone…would agree that having a bench where there is none for 800 [feet] is better than having one where there are five benches,” she told the newspaper last week.
At the council meeting in March, Talley recalled hearing numerous complaints about the benches during her tenure on the council, as well as reports of people “smoking weed” on the benches and problems with homeless and mentally ill people.
Another audience member, Jeff Benes, previously told the council that vagrants will linger downtown –and sleep at places such as the doorway to the library in Graham – regardless of whether benches are there or not, a point he reiterated during last week’s public hearing.
