During Monday’s meeting of Alamance County’s commissioners, Graham councilman Jim Young made a bid to win the county’s support to preserve the current location of Sesquicentennial Park.
Young appeared before the commissioners during their designated public comment period to request that they “partner” with the municipality to help shoulder the cost to repair this iconic landmark at the northwest corner of Court Square.
“Here’s the hard truth,” the first-term council-member told the county’s elected leaders. “Over the years, the county has not provided funding or real support for this park…Tonight, I ask you to close this gap.”
Young urged the commissioners to either earmark for the park’s “repairs, maintenance, and preservation,” match private donations dollar-to-dollar, or make a one-time contribution to “improve access, safety, and long-term upkeep” of the park.
“This is not about politics; it is about stewardship,” he added. “This park is a memorial space that reflects Alamance County’s history. . . Graham can’t and shouldn’t carry a county anniversary project alone.”
Young’s appeal to the commissioners was reinforced by Samuel Cohoon, who urged the county’s governing board to take better care of their collective history than his prior hometown of Las Vegas.
Meanwhile, Jim Albright, a one-time Graham council member, told the commissioners that he was shocked when a majority of current council voted to relocate the park because of the small number of people who had allegedly spoken out in support of its current location.
“This prompted me to put together a survey monkey to see if I could better gauge public sentiment,” he added, “and 412 out of 450 respondents or 91.5 percent said ‘no’ [to the park’s relocation]. Rarely in our time do we see so many people overwhelmingly agree on the same thing.”
In response to these pleas, Kelly Allen, the chairman of Alamance County’s commissioners, said that county staff would address Young’s recommendations with their counterparts at Graham city hall.
