BY MILES LAYTON
EDENTON — The Town of Edenton has spent more than $52,000 on legal fees tied to the Confederate Memorial’s fate so far.
Money spent defending Edenton from these lawsuits stems from disputes over the Town Council’s 2020 vote to remove the 1909 Confederate monument from South Broad Street. Members of the Sons of Confederate Veterans and a groups seeking the monument’s removal have challenged the town’s authority in court, leading to a series of legal battles that rage on.
Town financial records show two separate law offices have represented Edenton during lawsuits over the monument: the Hornthal, Riley, Ellis & Maland: Home (HREM) office, and attorneys with the North Carolina League of Municipalities (NCLM).
HREM is widely recognized as the area’s leading law firm and home to some of the most highly regarded North Carolina attorneys.
According to Town Hall, HREM has billed Edenton $49,814.13 for work on the cases so far.
The NCLM charged an additional $2,925 during the second lawsuit. The NCLM is a nonpartisan association of cities, towns, and villages in North Carolina.
Together, the total cost to taxpayers stands at $52,739.13.
Albemarle Observer has also reached out to Chowan County to find out what its legal expenses have been.
Remember, the war is not over — there are lawsuits percolating up through the courts regarding placement of the Confederate Memorial to 47 soldiers from Chowan County who died during the Civil War.
Also remember that other legal fees spent on the case have been spent by private parties to pursue their preferred outcome. And somebody had to pay for those billboards that unfairly characterize Edenton.
Monday, Superior Court judge Wayland Sermons lifted a restraining order that had protected the Confederate Memorial, clearing the way for its relocation, pending appeal.
The Town of Edenton began taking apart the landscaping at the Confederate monument Tuesday, less than 24 hours after the court lifted a restraining order that had protected the structure for more than two years.
The town said in a statement that it removed some bricks in order to study the statue’s base to see how to safely remove the statue. However, all of the brick patio had been removed, as had the flags on the four flagpoles surrounding the monument.
In late July, Edenton Bell Battery, Sons of Confederate Veterans, voted 7-6 in favor of endorsing a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that could determine the future of the statue.
The MOU, agreed upon earlier this year by the Edenton Town Council and the Chowan County Board of Commissioners, outlines the relocation of the Confederate monument from its current location at the end of South Broad Street (near the municipal building) to Veterans Park, behind the Chowan County Courthouse.
The MOU says that within 30 days of the civil suit’s resolution, the monument must be relocated. It will be moved to “new grounds on the backside of the Chowan County Courthouse. The site is in the open space between the Chowan County Jail Building and the War Memorial.”
And it goes without saying — moving that 13 ton monument isn’t going to be cheap either.
Subscribe/Donate
If you want to subscribe — FREE — check out our website at https://albemarleobserver.news/
If you want to subscribe – you can enter your email address at the website or send it to us at albemarle.observer@gmail.com and we will gladly add you to our growing subscriber list.
You can also donate by going to the Donations page by clicking here or send us a check at Albemarle Observer, C/O Miles Layton, 205 E. Church St. Apt. A, Edenton, NC 27932.
6 responses to “Edenton Has Spent More Than $52,000 Defending Confederate Monument Case”
You have stated a judge lifted the order 3 times, but you haven’t named the judge. Could you please inform the public who that would be?
Thanks for pointing that out. The story has been updated to note that Wayland Sermons was the judge.
$52K of taxpayer money so far. What could they have done with that? This is only the start. It was estimated the move would cost $40K. The town is stuck with the cost of the move and they have yet to do an engineering survey to ensure the destination will hold up the memorial. The plaintiff’s attorney tried to bring this up at the hearing but the judge dismissed it.
This is ridiculous. There’s nothing wrong with it being placed at the Veterans Park site. If the site can accommodate the weight. What a waste of taxpayer money. Some people have too much spare time. Plenty of constructive things they could be doing to help their community.
The destruction of historical monuments for political reasons is always sad. Some years ago, as I stood at the street corner in Sarajevo, Bosnia where Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austrian throne and his wife were assassinated by Serbian Black Hand terrorist Gavrillo Princip, which triggered World War I, there were no monuments to mark that event. There had been two, but both were destroyed for political reasons. A memorial erected by the Austrian government was pulled down by Serb nationalists after the end of the war. They put up a new monument to the assassin on the sport where he fired the fatal shots. That was pulled down by Bosniaks during the Bosnia civil war because the assassin was a Serb.
But even so, monuments to soldiers and sailors of imperial Austria remain throughout the former Austrian lands on Croatia, Slovenia, and Bosnia. Memorials to brave soldiers always command more respect. The huge monument to the Austrian naval victory over Italy in the Battle of Lissa in 1866, the only fleet action ever fought between fleets of ironclads, still stands proudly on the Croatian coast. When one visits Pula, now in Slovenia, which was once a major base of the Imperial Austrian Navy, one still finds quite a few monuments to Austrian sailors.
If Europeans in areas with a history of ethnic divisions can respect memorials to fallen soldiers of other groups, why can’t some Americans?
[…] Taxpayers — get this — the initial expenses for the relocation was $35,000 according to Town Hall. Also, remember to add to that total $52,000 for legal expenses. […]