All we can do is continually shake our head in disbelief and disgust that Graham’s city council can be so deaf to the overwhelming citizen sentiment in wanting to restore the Sesquicentennial Park that for a quarter-century occupied the northwest corner of Court Square opposite the Historic Court House.
Instead, the city council voted this week, 3-2, to proceed with selling the property – opting to go the route of an online auction.
They totally ignored the pleas of a group of citizens who met last week to establish a committee to work on fundraising for maintaining the park.
The citizen committee, represented at this week’s meeting by Jeff Benes and Richard Wright, showed a willingness to make incremental steps toward restoring the park; it doesn’t have to be put back exactly as it existed previously, they explained.
No, the council was in such a rush to put the property up for sale they would not consent to slow down, postpone, meet with, work with, or otherwise entertain any option suggested by the committee or other members of the public other than to sell the property.
Even when citizens have met the challenge of trying to find ways to address the council’s concerns, they have been ignored, even belittled, or mocked for being “too late” in responding to the park’s condition.
Also interesting was the council’s determination to single out this one piece of property for sale rather than any other potential surplus properties across the city.
It also continues to astound us that the council would prefer to remain blind to any potential remedies for fixing the park.
They’ve refused for several months to entertain seeking bids on the possible price tag among contractors who might be able to stabilize the park’s foundation – the ostensible reason it became a “safety” concern.
One would think a well-informed council would want the maximum amount of factual information on which to base sound decision-making. And especially when it doesn’t cost anything to find out.
But at least two members of the council – Bobby Chin and Bonnie Whitaker – have expressed a preference to sell the property since the issue of the park’s maintenance first emerged in March of 2024.
The one incumbent councilman who was originally the lone holdout supporting repair, Ricky Hall, has now inexplicably joined the other two in wanting to eliminate the park, permanently, and sell off the property. (It was supposedly Hall’s mention of the need for including repairs in the city’s next budget during a December 2023 council work session that ending up being the pretext for getting rid of the park altogether.)
We guess we shouldn’t be surprised by the council’s continued actions ignoring its citizens.
For 2½ years, they’ve held exactly one public hearing on the subject of the park – at which one, solitary citizen spoke in favor of moving the park.
At numerous other council meetings – most notably in February – dozens of residents have asked to preserve the park, but their pleas continue to be in vain.
The action by the council is the antithesis of representative government. Council members were elected to act on behalf of the will of the majoirty of Graham citizens – and promised to do so when they ran for office. But they have done anything but.
