Graham Council Advances 3-2 Design to Relocate Sesquicentennial Park

Graham City Council voted 3-2 on Feb. 17 to advance the design phase for relocating Sesquicentennial Park from its longtime home at Court Square to a site on West Elm Street and authorized hiring Stewart Inc. to begin design, according to meeting coverage. The special-called meeting began at 8:30 a.m. and lasted about 45 minutes, and The Times-News reported councilmembers Bonnie Whitaker, Bobby Chin and Ricky Hall voted to continue with the move.

Reports differ about the exact West Elm parcel the council majority effectively approved. January’s 4-1 council vote adopted a plan drawn by Mayor Pro Tem Ricky Hall placing the park adjacent to and immediately behind the Graham Historical Museum at 135 West Elm Street. AlamanceNews, however, says an architectural and engineering bidder proposed an alternative locating the park in the front portion of the city parking lot along West Elm Street immediately adjacent to Roasted Coffee Depot at 131 West Elm Street and across from The Alamance News at 114 West Elm Street, and that the council majority accepted that alternative. Sources do not provide a single parcel identifier to reconcile the discrepancy.

Sesquicentennial Park opened in 2001 to mark Alamance County’s 150th anniversary and was built with community donations, commemorative bricks and plaques honoring local residents. City reporting and local outlets say the park has been closed to the public because of structural safety concerns, including a city finding that the Court Square site has been sinking into what used to be the basement of a former building and that the risk to public safety and potential liability were too great. In May 2025 the council voted 4-1 to remove the pergola and memorial bricks from the park; Mayor Pro Tem Ricky Hall was the lone dissent then.

Public opposition has been intense. At the Feb. 10 regular council meeting, 24 speakers urged officials to keep the park at Court Square, and a city-presented online survey of 450 respondents showed 92 percent wanted to retain the existing location. Residents delivered stark appeals at council meetings, telling officials, "What started as a conversation about money has turned into something much bigger," and asking, "If the community is willing to pay to fix it, why are we spending public money to move it?" One speaker said, "We are offering to restore this park at no cost to the city. Please let us do that."

Financial and logistical questions remain unresolved. Mayor Chelsea Dickey, who has consistently voted against relocation and said, "I ran on keeping Sesquicentennial Park right where it is," told reporters the city has roughly $483,000 in state grant funding that expires June 30 and could be used to repair the park at Court Square. Speakers at meetings have estimated a new park could cost more than $1 million, and WFMY reported there is no final construction timeline or cost estimate at this time.

Council dynamics have shifted since initial discussions in March 2024 under former Mayor Jennifer Talley and the May 2025 pergola vote. Councilman Bobby Chin described the consultant’s architectural proposal as a "stark contrast" to Hall’s January plan. AlamanceNews published consultant renderings and reported that some council members heralded the new concept and AI-generated renderings as even better. The design phase authorized Feb. 17 is expected to produce formal plans and cost estimates; city minutes, procurement documents and final site mapping will be needed to confirm the selected parcel, contract details and the number of parking spaces affected.