Dozens of residents who turned out to speak at the Graham city council meeting on February 10 were, no doubt, deeply disappointed that the council ignored their pleas to keep and fix the existing Sesquicentennial Park. Instead, last week, during a special meeting, the council voted, 3-2, to move the park around the corner to a less visible parking lot site, eliminating about 20 downtown parking spaces in the process.
But lest the advocates for the park think their messages – delivered during one hour and 22 minutes of public comments that night – didn’t have any impact on the council, we suspect they will be equally dismayed and disappointed by the “lesson” the city council apparently took from such a broad turnout of citizens.
During another “special” meeting this week – ostensibly to deal with its meeting procedures and to hear from a financial consultant – the council set about to institute two new restrictions so that the council will never again have to suffer through such lengthy expressions of citizen input, on any topic…