Adoption of Juneteenth Day as a city holiday is scheduled for Monday night at a regularly-scheduled meeting of the Fayetteville City Council.
The meeting is set for 7 p.m. at the FAST Transit Center.
“I want to thank the council for its consideration,” Councilwoman Yvonne Kinston said at the council’s Jan. 3 work session, where Kinston asked the council to consider June 19 as a paid holiday for city employees.
Her request received unanimous support from Mayor Mitch Colvin, Mayor Pro Tem Kathy Keefe Jensen and council members Shakeyla Ingram, Courtney Banks-McLaughlin, Johnny Dawkins, Chris Davis, D.J. Haire, Larry Wright and newly-appointed councilman Antonio Jones.
Juneteenth commemorates the emancipation of African American slaves in the United States and was signed into law as a federal holiday on June 17, 2021, by President Joe Biden. It marks the first new federal holiday since Martin Luther King Jr. Day was signed into law in November 1983 by President Ronald Reagan.
“Councilwoman Kinston brought it up,” Colvin said at the Jan. 3 work session, “and we looked at other cities that have adopted it.”
Ingram wanted to know, since June 19 falls on a Sunday in 2022, if Juneteenth will be celebrated on June 17 or June 20. City Manager Doug Hewett said that will be determined. The council was told Juneteenth Day will have an effect on “loss of revenue” and sanitation collection in some areas of the city.
Other consent items on Monday’s agenda include adoption of a special revenue fund project ordinance for a sewer lift station upgrade at the Fayetteville Regional Airport funded by a Golden Leaf Foundation grant; adoption of a resolution to authorize the N.C. Department of Transportation a second supplemental municipal agreement awarding a Federal Transportation Alternatives Program grant for a Rose Hill Road sidewalk project between Country Club Drive and Shaw Mill Road; approval of municipal certificates with the N.C. Department of Transportation for speed limit revisions along Cedar Creek Road between Grove Street and Interstate 95; and a resolution supporting Phase 2 of the Fayetteville Area Metropolitan Planning Organization from Fayetteville to Raleigh passenger rail feasibility study for the eastern corridor.
The council also will hear administrative reports on a temporary storage ordinance, a feather signage report and a new N.C. Department of Transportation improvement project along Murchison Road between Country Club Drive and the Interstate 295 Outer Loop.
Bill Kirby Jr. can be reached at billkirby49@gmail.com or 910-624-1961.
