Graham council splits again over fate of Sesquicentennial Park
Graham’s 3-2 split left Sesquicentennial Park closed again, with engineers now asked to price repairs after years of stalled votes and rising costs.
A 3-2 split on the Graham City Council kept Sesquicentennial Park in limbo on May 14, when Mayor Chelsea Dickey’s push to seek new repair bids failed and the council instead moved toward asking the city’s engineering firm to put a number on fixing the closed Court Square landmark. Dickey and Jim Young backed the repair-bid motion; Bobby Chin, Ricky Hall and Bonnie Whitaker voted no.
The stalemate matters far beyond one small downtown corner. Sesquicentennial Park sits on the northwest corner of Court Square, one of Graham’s most visible civic spaces, and it has been closed because the city says the site is unsafe. The park was built in 1999 to mark Alamance County’s 150th anniversary that year and Graham’s own 150th anniversary in 2001. Its dedicated bricks, columns, pergola, benches, clock and original courthouse bell were meant to anchor the square, but the city now says limited site preparation left the brickwork suffering differential settlement from underground remnants left on the site.
The dispute has already produced a trail of bids, notices and retreating plans. City bid documents showed a pre-bid meeting on April 16, 2025, a deadline of April 25 and a bid opening on April 28. In May 2025, H.F. Mitchell and Pinam Construction submitted figures that ranged from $379,425 and $470,701 for reconstruction to $76,500 and $81,432 for demolition and storage work. Earlier proposals for a separate new park at 129 West Elm Street came in at $1.2 million and $1.6 million, enough to push the council away from that plan. A later city RFQ, dated January 27, 2026, set a project budget of $600,000 to $800,000 and called for a July 4, 2026 ceremonial opening behind the Graham Historical Museum at 135 W. Elm Street, using as much of the original memorial material as possible.
The legal stakes have grown alongside the price tag. Tom Boney, Jr. raised concerns about whether the city could remove what North Carolina law treats as an object of remembrance, since state statute generally bars permanent removal from public property and allows relocation only in limited cases, including preservation or construction needs. If an object is moved permanently, the law requires a site of similar prominence, honor, visibility, availability and access within the same jurisdiction.
Public pressure has followed every turn. A September 9, 2025 hearing notice proposed moving the park from 2 NW Court Square to the Graham Historical Museum parking lot, and later meetings drew packed opposition as the relocation idea advanced. With the council still divided and the engineering review now expected to guide the next step, the park’s future remains unsettled and downtown Graham is still waiting for a decision that matches the cost.
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