Wilmington City Council postpones vote on Black Lives Matter art installation

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — On Tuesday, the City of Wilmington postponed voting on the installation of a Black Lives Matter sign visible from 3rd Street.

This comes after some heated debates between council members at Monday’s agenda meeting.

Councilman Charlie Rivenbark argued the sign could be perceived as racist and suggested an ‘All Lives Matter’ sign instead. Mayor Pro Tem Margaret Haynes also expressed interest in an alternative sign.

Staff quickly drew up an alternative, ‘ILM=BLM’.

Mayor Bill Saffo asked council to postpone the decision for two weeks in order to allow staff additional time to finalize plans. Councilman Kevin Spears pushed for a vote Tuesday night, but it was ultimately postponed.

“If in two weeks we definitely pull the trigger and get what we’ve waited so long to have, I’ll be happy,” Spears said. “If not, I’m sure that myself and a lot of other constituents won’t be happy. I think this is something that a lot of people really want to see and they don’t want to wait.”

Part of the resolution also called for the creation of a public plaza for art expression on N. Front Street between N. 4th and Parsley Streets. This is also being postponed.

Also during Tuesday night’s meeting, council voted to move forward in the next step of ​the Wilmington Multi-Modal Transportation Center.

Phase 1A of the project, the transit portion of the facility, was completed and opened in January. Phase 1B consists of renovating the old Thomas Grocery building at 525 N. 4th Street.

Council voted to award the contract to HDR Inc., an engineering firm based out of Raleigh. The city will pay more than $316,730.60 for the renovation design including schematic design, design development, preparation of construction documents, and bidding.

City council is also moving forward on Municipal Golf Course club house renovations.
Bids for revised scope of the improvements were opened in May.

The lowest bidder, ATD Building Group, came back at $1,155,900, $62,278 over budget.

Council voted to authorize the city manager to negotiate with ATD to try to bring costs within budget. They also voted to allocate a 165,000 contingency fund in the event there are unforeseen additional costs.

Also during Tuesday’s meeting:

• The consent agenda passed
• A public hearing about rezoning an area of College Acres Drive passed
• Ordinances O1 – O4.c. all passed

Click here to view the agenda.