BY MILES LAYTON

EDENTON — The Chowan County Board of Commissioners will hold back-to-back meetings on Tuesday, September 2, beginning with a special closed session before its regular monthly meeting.

Confederate Memorial

The special meeting is scheduled for 5 p.m. at the Chowan County Public Safety Center, 305 West Freemason Street in Edenton. According to the agenda, commissioners will meet privately with attorneys under state law to discuss the lawsuit Rev. Dr. John Shannon, Sherrone Battle, Stella Brothers, Debra Miller, and Rod Phillips v. Town of Edenton, Town Council, Chowan County, and Board of Commissioners. 

Because the 5 p.m. meeting is a closed session, the public will not be admitted until the regular meeting begins an hour later.

Worth repeating, since the lazy legacy media follows our lead – while the statue was dismantled late Saturday night/early Sunday morning, it will be rebuilt and placed, pending the outcome of ongoing lawsuits, at Veterans Park.  

Speaking of dismantling, I think it is important to republish Commission Chairman Bob Kirby’s comment from our previous story for those drive-by out-of-town reporters who may have only glanced at our photo without reading our full story or stories that we’ve written during the past several years.

Kudos to Kirby for offering this statement:  

“I fully support the Town of Edenton in scheduling the Confederate Memorial relocation late in the evening on Saturday and early in the morning on Sunday. Any crane rigging, lifting, and transport evolution is inherently dangerous.

“The Town Manager rightly scheduled the work during a period when pedestrian and vehicle traffic on Broad Street was at a weekly minimum, thus making for a much safer environment.

“To those who would imply that this work was done covertly and in secret with nefarious intent, I would respond that a lot of pre movement publicity as to the timing of the work by the Town would have exponentially increased both pedestrian and vehicular traffic which would have defeated the desire for a safe evolution.

“Also, moving the Memorial, for instance, at noon on a Wednesday with a lot of advance notice, and with a lot of fanfare would have created a circus atmosphere, which would have done a disservice to the memory of those whom the Memorial commemorates. May God Bless the Town of Edenton, Chowan County, the Great State of North Carolina, and the United States of America!”

And I’m also republishing Edenton Mayor Hackney High’s statement, a portion of which appears below — Mayor, thank you for issuing this statement clarifying the matter:

As we reflect on the Confederate Monument debate here in Edenton, I am reminded of an old saying: “A good settlement leaves all parties somewhat dissatisfied.” This speaks to the very nature of compromise no one gets everything they want, but everyone gets something they can live with.

This past week, Judge Wayland Sermons issued an order dismissing the lawsuit that included the 2023 restraining order prohibiting the Town from relocating the Confederate Monument. With that legal obstacle now removed, the Town is moving forward in partnership with Chowan County to relocate the monument to its new home at Veterans Memorial Park, behind the Chowan County Courthouse. As a first step, the monument has been taken down and safely stored, where it will remain until it is reinstalled at the park.

Drive-by uninformed copy/paste reporters (Not you, Vernon, because I know you’ve worked hard to cover this issue extensively) — questions that need to be asked about the statue’s status: 

• What happens if the litigants successfully appeal the statue’s fate so that it is returned to South Broad Street, or even imagine this scenario – the memorial is reinstalled at Veterans Park, only to have the courts say that’s not a good spot either.
• If pending or potential future litigation remains unresolved, will the statue remain in storage, perhaps indefinitely?  
• Or how about this – when I’m about to undertake a major project on my house, I budget money to pay for roof repairs or to upgrade my electric system. Meaning, how much has Town Hall set aside to reconstitute the monument at Veterans Park?
• On that note, have engineering studies been conducted to determine whether the park’s land can support a multi-ton statue that’s going to tower over other war monuments.   
• Though I have a good guess (which I’m not going to share) as to where the monument is being stored for the foreseeable future, can Town Hall/County Commission reassure the public that this piece of history is not stored in some unlocked broom closet but locked away, safe from radical, perpetually offended fringe pink hair types that tend to live in places like Chapel Hill, write bad poetry in the dark and hang posters of Che Guevara on their commune’s walls.  
• A question for the Move the Monument Crowd – now that the memorial to Chowan County’s war dead has been removed from South Broad, will the offending billboards declaring Edenton racist be cleansed, or will they continue to remain as a perpetual insult to our community?  
• Did the public works personnel who had to remove the statue at midnight on Labor Day weekend receive overtime wages?  Optics aside when regarding the timing of moving the statue, these workers might as well have been working a split shift — Saturday night/Sunday morning — really, who goes back to sleep after doing something like that? They deserve a good bonus or triple-time wages.

Public Portion Begins at 6 p.m.

The board’s regular session will open with the pledge and invocation from Commissioner Evans before moving into approval of the agenda and a public comment period. Residents will have up to three minutes each to speak to commissioners on matters of county concern.

Though folks have the right to speak during public comment, please, please don’t grandstand on the Confederate Memorial’s future. And because of pending litigation, commissioners will be tight-lipped regarding the statue’s future.

Opioid Funds and Veterans Services

Several updates are planned. The Opioid Settlement Funds Committee will brief the board on its recent work in guiding the use of settlement money awarded to counties across North Carolina. Chowan’s portion is being directed toward treatment, prevention, and recovery initiatives meant to ease the impact of opioid addiction locally.

The board will also hear the annual report from Veterans Services Officer Wayne Bray, who assists Chowan’s veterans and their families in securing benefits, health care, and other services.

Policy Change on Employee Transfers

Commissioners will consider a personnel policy amendment that would change rules for county employees still in their probationary period. At present, new employees cannot transfer to a different job classification until their nine-month probationary period ends. The amendment would give the county manager discretion to approve such transfers on a case-by-case basis.

Supporters of the change say it would help the county fill vacancies and retain talent, while commissioners may also weigh questions of fairness and consistency.

Insurance and Budget Business

County Manager Kevin Howard will present a proposed insurance settlement stemming from hail damage to several county buildings.

Finance Officer Cathy Smith is also scheduled to review a set of budget amendments for the 2026 fiscal year—labeled Amendments 010 through 013—and provide an update on spending tied to the J.A. Holmes High School project.

Other Reports and Invitations

Commissioners will deliver updates from the various external boards and committees on which they serve.

The board will also receive an invitation from the Friends of State Historic Sites–Edenton to attend Chimes on the Green, a celebration of the restoration of the historic clock on the 1767 Chowan County Courthouse. The event will highlight one of Edenton’s best-known landmarks and draw attention to ongoing preservation efforts.