An Alamance News investigative report: Graham city council public records
Graham mayor pro tem Ricky Hall and city council members Bobby Chin and Bonnie Whitaker appear to have received little correspondence urging them to move the Sesquicentennial Park from the northwest corner of Court Square. That’s a marked contrast to Whitaker’s and Chin’s frequent insistence that they’ve heard an outpouring of support for moving the park.
The issue continues to divide the council. The council majority (Hall, Whitaker, and Chin) remains unwavering in its decision to tear down the existing park, due to potential safety hazards caused by structural degradation, and rebuild it on a city parking lot along West Elm Street.
[Story continues below photos of council members.]
On the losing side of several recent votes over the fate of Sesquicentennial Park are two newcomers who joined the council in December 2025: mayor Chelsea Dickey, who says she prefers to repair the park to make it structurally sound and keep it in its existing location; and councilman Jim Young, who says he wants to allow sufficient time for community members to raise money to repair the park in its current location.
The Alamance News filed public records requests on February 19 with Hall, Whitaker, and Chin. The newspaper sought copies of all correspondence (including emails and texts) to, from, and among them and any Graham business owners, residents, or others who have contacted the council about Sesquicentennial Park since December 1, 2025.
The newspaper’s public records request only covered written materials, which would not have reflected any telephone or face-to-face conversations about relocating the park that Chin, Hall, or Whitaker may have had with their constituents.
Hall and Whitaker provided their correspondence late last week, through the city manager, in response to a subsequent, March 10 follow-up letter, in which Alamance News publisher Tom Boney, Jr. pointed out that the state’s Public Records Law stipulates a “reasonable” timeframe for a response. North Carolina case law and legal experts have determined a reasonable timeframe to be a week or two for simple requests.
Chin provided his emails through the city manager Wednesday afternoon, shortly before the newspaper’s press deadline.
“I would also note that your failure to comply,” Boney wrote in his March 10 follow-up letter to the three Graham city council members, “could ultimately entail a requirement to pay for the newspaper’s legal expenses, if legal action to compel your compliance becomes necessary…I have not yet instructed our attorney to begin litigation on this issue but will do so if I do not receive the requested public records forthwith and without further delay.”
The records reveal that Hall and Whitaker received emails and/or text messages expressing opposition to moving the park from: : Jane Albright, who owns the Things Above bookstore on Court Square and an outspoken critic of relocation; Stephen and Caroline Johnston; and Janet Ecklebarger, an artist and owner of Graham-based Glean Design. One person, the wife of former councilman Joey Parsons, emailed all five council members the morning of February 17, shortly before they were to convene a special meeting about the park, to say that it seemed like a good idea to let the community raise money to fix the park.
Not all of the constituents’ emails showed up uniformly among the documents that Chin, Hall, and Whitaker furnished in response to the newspaper’s public records request. The Johnstons and Parsons copied all five council members on their emails. Ecklebarger omitted Dickey from the list of recipients on her email.
Chin had also been copied on the emails from Ecklebarger, Parsons, and the Johnstons; he furnished the email from the Johnstons but not those from Ecklebarger and Parsons.
Also noticeably absent from the documents furnished are any emails that constituents and/or other community members may have sent to the three council members’ personal email addresses.
Meanwhile, there’s been plenty of intra-council discussion about the park, meeting decorum, and a desire for “unity” among council members – as well as the process for appointing new members to Graham’s advisory boards and commissions – according to the documents that have been furnished to the newspaper (see related story, this edition).
‘Move the park’
Whitaker also received text messages in January and February from two people who said they support moving the park. She also received emails last month from two anonymous senders – one of whom called on Whitaker and Hall to resign – who also appeared to oppose the relocation.
Whitaker received about nine text messages about the park from a person named Keith Dodson on February 3 and February 20.
Dodson initially texted Whitaker on February 3 to express his support for the council majority’s decision to relocate Sesquicentennial Park to the West Elm Street parking lot. In his first text, he wrote, “Hey Bonnie, I’m starting to see posts about the Square and organizing an uprising at the next Council meeting…regardless of how many people show up to scream and yell at the meeting next week, I’m ALL FOR MOVING THE PARK….”
Whitaker replied to Dodson on February 3, “Excellent!!! Please sign up on the list at the back of the chambers when you come in! It’s going to be kind of a ruckus I am afraid…It’s very interesting how we have the mob mentality all of a sudden since the swearing in of the new mayor. Seems the same people are unhappy now no matter what the city does.”
Telling Whitaker that he and his wife “are very excited about the new vision and placement of the park,” Dodson went on to opine about what he described as a shift in the city’s political landscape following Dickey’s election as mayor of Graham in November 2025.
“She’s part of the leftist move into small towns,” Dodson wrote in a subsequent text to Whitaker on February 20, referring to Dickey, who grew up in Mebane. “We need adults to remain adults while the soiled [sic] brats throw their tantrums. A year after the park is done…the new mayor will take credit for it.”
Whitaker received a text message expressing support for the new location along West Elm Street at 6:57 p.m. during the council’s meeting on January 13. A person named Lindsay McKinney texted Whitaker, “Move the park.”
At 9:43 p.m. the same night, McKinney asked Whitaker in a text message, “So the vote you took tonight, is that officially moving the park to a new plot, or is [to] hold a vote and speak to community?” McKinney wrote in her text to Whitaker, adding that she liked the first plan that Hall had sketched out, which was presented at the January 13 meeting.
In her text response to McKinney, Whitaker wrote, “The return for citizens at the new location is huge.”
The council had voted 4-1, with Dickey opposed, on January 13 to move Sesquicentennial Park from the northwest corner of Court Square to a courtyard and parking lot behind the Graham Historical Museum at 135 West Elm Street in Graham. [The council voted 3-2 in February to shift the placement of the park to the front portion of the city parking lot along West Elm Street; and on March 12, the council voted 3-2 to move the park to the front of the same parking lot, with a different design. In February and March, Dickey and Young against; Dickey cast the lone vote against in it January.]
‘This could be tackled another way’
By comparison, Jane Albright urged Whitaker in a February 27 email, which was sent through the city’s website, to reconsider fixing the park. Albright explained that she’d spoken with Sam Powell, co-chair of committee that oversaw the fundraising for and construction of the park in 1999, who insisted that an engineer could fill the sinking floor of the park for about $200,000.
“He believes taking it apart and rebuilding it wouldn’t be a good economic option – which you have said all along,” Albright wrote in her email to Whitaker. “BUT he is convinced it could be tackled another way, with this filler and that the dryness of the soil report indicated good things as far as all this goes…I really do believe it would be worth the effort to find out.”
Powell – who has since been appointed to serve an abbreviated term for deceased county commissioner John Paisley, Jr. until an election can be held in November – also apparently suggested that a portion of the $600,000 downtown revitalization grant that the city received in the state biennial budget in 2023 could be used to spruce up the park in its existing location, based on the conversation that Albright recalled in her email to Whitaker.
“It just makes sense instead of spending all that money on a park I am not sure anyone wants in a new location,” Albright wrote in her February 27 email to Whitaker, adding, “This is my last email I promise.”
Albright had alluded in her February 27 email to correspondence with Whitaker and/or other council members, but the documents that Whitaker furnished in response to the newspaper’s public records request included no other emails or texts from her.
By comparison, Hall furnished one text message from Albright on February 6, asking if he had time to discuss the park. He suggested that she call him then; the trail goes dry from there. No other records of any communication with Albright were among the documents that Hall furnished to the newspaper.
‘Great idea to allow citizens to raise money’
All five council members were copied on an email received an email from Angela Parsons, the wife of former Graham councilman Joey Parsons, who resigned last fall to move to Burlington.
Angela Parsons emailed the council at 8:04 a.m. on February 17 – shortly before the special called meeting was to begin at 8:30 a.m. – to say she was praying “that God is in every word that is spoken and every decision that is made,” adding that she thought it was a “great idea both fiscally and relationally” to allow citizens to raise money to fix the park, which had been suggested at the monthly council meeting on February 12.
‘Not thought out at all’
In a February 16 email to Hall, Whitaker, Young, and Chin, Ecklebarger, the owner of Glean Design wrote: “Your idea to relocate Sesquicentennial Park was hastily made and the drawings were not thought out at all.
“Taking away parking spaces and creating a walled in park is a terrible idea…While I do not think the current Sesquicentennial park is all that exciting, the idea of moving it so Jennifer [Talley] or one of her friends can buy the property is not what you are supposed to be doing as City Council members.” Ecklebarger instead urged the council majority to spend the money to “clean up and shore up the current location and make the people of Graham happy.”
Only Whitaker responded to Ecklebarger’s email, based on the records that have been furnished to the newspaper. In her response, Whitaker insisted that Talley had publicly stated, “in two separate meetings,” that neither she nor any of her businesses had any interest in purchasing the site on which the park currently stands. “The council’s intention is to provide a safe, functional and beautiful space for all to enjoy,” Whitaker wrote, thanking Ecklebarger for her input.
The documents furnished by Hall included neither the email from Ecklebarger nor any response he may have sent.
‘You work for us, not just one heavily influential person’
A February 22 email that was sent to the entire council, which listed the sender as Caroline Cummings but was signed Caroline and Stephen Johnston, criticized the council’s vote during the special meeting on February 17. “I am disappointed to know that our elected officials are not listening to the people of Graham. You all work for us, not just one heavily influential person in our community,” the email stated.
“I understand the current location of the park is to be sold if the park is moved,” the Johnstons’ email stated. “To me, this seems to be the real motivation behind moving the park, not safety…This is not what the people voted for…Mayor Dickey, I apologize that you are still having to run against the former mayor even after being elected.”
‘Resign you coward’
Whitaker was also on the receiving end of some pointed criticism from two people whom she seemed to indicate had contacted her anonymously.
A sender identified as “uncblueneck” emailed Whitaker on February 14, using the subject line “Sleepy Ricky,” stating, “Take a look…he’s a big fat [expletive] get his [expletive] off the council.” No response from Whitaker was included among the documents she furnished to the newspaper.
Instead, Whitaker forwarded the “Sleepy Ricky” email to Graham’s city manager and IT director on February 17, along with two screenshots of messages on Facebook, adding, “This needs to be tracked down.”
On Sunday March 1, “uncblueneck” emailed Whitaker, using her city of Graham email address, stating, “You are a coward!! I’ll release your email address then your nasty mouth will be locked out of city hall. RESIGN YOU COWARD[.]”
‘The most hated people in Graham’
On February 25, a sender identified as “John Smith” sent an email to all five council members, with the subject line, “How does it feel?”
However, Smith specifically addressed “Ricky, Bobby, Bonnie,” asking how it felt to be “the most hated people in Graham.”
“How does it feel that you will never be voted into office again?” Smith wrote. “How does it feel that you broke your oath to represent the citizens? How much are you getting paid to move this park?”
Whitaker responded the same day, writing, “Dear Mr. ‘Smith,’ You sound like a very unhappy man. I hope that you can let go of all that anger and hatred because it is not healthy and life is too short for that nonsense. I’ll pray for you.”
Smith replied the same day to Whitaker, conceding that he is unhappy, “because you and your goons don’t represent the citizens.”
The documents furnished by Hall did not include the email from Smith.
The newspaper also requested copies of all correspondence, including emails and/or texts, to and from city council members and then-mayor, now former mayor, Jennifer Talley since December 1.
Only one document was furnished in response to that aspect of the request: Whitaker texted Talley last Monday, March 9, to let her know that she was on the agenda for the council’s March 10 meeting to present a photo to Children’s Chapel United Church of Christ, in honor of its designation as an historic landmark. The documents that Whitaker furnished in response to the public records request contained no response from Talley.
