Hillsborough Mayor Jenn Weaver speaks with 97.9 The Hill’s Brighton McConnell on Tuesday, May 31. She discusses the Memorial Day events that happened around the community, while also previewing an upcoming 5K at a popular walking trail in town. Plus: Weaver shares details on an ongoing town beautification measure. This is a transcript of the interview. To listen to the interview, click here.
Brighton McConnell: We are talking with Hillsborough mayor Jenn Weaver today. She joins me on the phone as she does most Tuesdays. How are you, Jenn?
Jenn Weaver: I’m doing all right Brighton, hanging in there.
McConnell: That is good to hear. I hope that your long weekend went well. I know that a lot of people were able to take some needed time off with Memorial Day last weekend and I know that there were several events that were happening in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro area. Not sure as much about the Hillsborough community. Did you see any participation in any Memorial Day events up in Hillsborough?
Weaver: Yes. I was one of those people that actually took a couple of personal days this weekend that I greatly needed on Sunday and Monday, so this year I did not attend any public events. But I do know that there was the annual event at the Veterans Memorial at the Seymour Center — that usually draws people from all over the county and I typically go to that event. It’s really lovely and such a beautiful and contemplative space there. So, I’m sure that that was a meaningful and somber event as it usually is. And the mayor pro temp [Matt Hughes] was able to attend in my absence, the Orange County Coalition for Peace and Justice. They host an event every Memorial Day to help us remember all of the victims of war and the tragedy that is in and of itself. And commissioner Hughes was able to attend that virtual event on my behalf where he read the town of Hillsborough proclamation, our Memorial Day proclamation.
McConnell: Right. That absolutely sounds very poignant. And to echo your point about the Orange County Veterans Memorial, I love going to that event. It’s cool to see at this point, over the years, how many steps have been taken to expand that memorial. Getting it closer and closer to the veterans’ committee’s full vision for that space is really neat, and it sounds like yesterday’s event was certainly nice as well.
Now, I know that last week you talked with Andrew Stuckey about there not being the normal American flags in Hillsborough for Memorial Day, and we’ve done some reporting on this in the past. It’s because Duke Energy is now no longer allowing those flags to be put on electrical poles, but I know that the Hillsborough Board of Commissioners recently got an update and is working to find a way around that with some banners. Can you tell us where that process is since we’re transitioning from Memorial Day into pride month?
Weaver: That’s right. Over the last year, this has been an ongoing multifaceted thing we’ve had to work out, but over the past year, we wanted to figure out a way to still display both the American flag and the North Carolina flags that go up with the American flag and the pride flags. And so we explored this idea of having a banner agreement with Duke Energy. We needed to look carefully because it’s different kinds of hardware, it’s different locations. We also needed to think about the capacity of our very small public work staff to be able to have the time to do multiple change-outs of the banners throughout the year. And so all of that just took a little time because we wanted to be sure that if we were going to do it, we were going to do it the right way.
After getting all of that information, we decided that we did want to invest in the banners and the hardware and have those up. However, that same time period was when we were doing the rebrand of the town logo, and we needed to wait for that process to be complete before we could get banner designs. That had the new logo and is going to make sense with all of that rebranding. So long story short, we’ve gone through a whole process and the staff has had to do their work to figure out the right place to order things from, and it’s just taken a little bit of time to get the banner agreement in place with Duke Energy. That box has been checked for a little while now, and we are waiting on the banners to arrive. The staff has put in the new hardware–I believe I saw them working on that over the weekend. And we are hoping that we will at least have the pride flags up for part of pride month, which of course starts tomorrow.
McConnell: That is definitely exciting. And it sounds like it is a lot of steps, but for something that might be ultimately small, we’re just talking about the electrical poles downtown, but those banners and decorations go a long way towards town spirit. And also we talk a lot about public art. It’s another way to celebrate Memorial Day, pride month, all these other things that go on. Does the town government hear often from community members about seeing those banners and how that kind of beautification of the town adds to Hillsborough’s character?
Weaver: Yes, absolutely. One thing you’re reminding me of is the other banners that will be up during the parts of the year that are not holidays. The regular welcome to Hillsborough banners are being replaced with the new branding and people do really like those. And it’s really helpful to our local economy. The business community really likes them. It just adds to the feel of Hillsborough. And I can tell you that people certainly noticed the absence of the flags this Memorial Day weekend, which was very understandable because that is very meaningful to folks to have that recognition. I talked about it on the radio last week and the town issued a press release to remind folks, but we still got some questions because people wondered where they were. So it’s definitely an important part of just our public space and how we are expressing our values.
McConnell: HillsboroughNC.gov is the town’s website. If you want to go get some more information on–I think maybe it’s a step too far to call it a saga of flags versus banners, but in downtown Hillsborough, it’s been going on for the last year. They have some details there. We have some reporting on Chapelboro. If you go back and look through some meeting materials, you’ll get to see the potential designs that the board of commissioners actually were voting on and discussing not that long ago as well. I know that the board of commissioners, because we had a holiday this Monday and because May was a longer month, they’re not meeting this week. Kind of a quiet week for the town government, but we are about to hit June, as you just mentioned, Jenn, what are some of the things that are on your radar or on the town’s radar that residents of Hillsborough and community members should be thinking about as we come into this new month?
Weaver: Well, as you said, we’re hitting a kind of a quiet period as far as explicit events go. We just came off the heels of a last Friday, which I think went really well. And we’ll be keying up for another one of those at the end of June. And then tomorrow night is a fun event, which is the Global Running Day 5K, which will be hosted by Fleet Feet here in Hillsborough. That’ll be at the Speedway and along the river walk and I think that’ll be a great event tomorrow evening.
McConnell: Got it. Is the organization doing that 5K? I have to say I’m unfamiliar with them.
Weaver: Well, I hope I’m explaining this right, but it is hosted by Fleet Feet of Carrboro and Durham. It’s to celebrate Global Running Day and then a portion of the registration proceeds will go to support the organization Girls On the Run. And so I believe it’s just an opportunity to kind of promote running as a fun physical activity and get a chance for people to come out and support Girls On the Run. And in addition to the 5K, there’s also just a fun run, which will be one lap around the Speedway at 7:30. It sounds like a really great time just to be out and enjoy one of Hillsborough’s prize public spaces. And you folks who haven’t been out there, remember that this eventually is going to become part of Eno State Park.
McConnell: That’s right. Well, if you want to check out more details on the big 5K, the town of Hillsborough has a little bit on their website, but I think you’ll need to go to Fleet Feet to learn a little bit more about that. And is there anything else in the town? I know that we’re into budget season. I know that we still have the comprehensive sustainability plan that’s being worked on for the town. Anything else that you want to keep in residents’ minds as we hit June, Jenn?
Weaver: Well, you really hit the high points. I really hope that our community will be on the lookout for opportunities to see draft versions of chapters of the comprehensive sustainability plan. There’ll be different opportunities for people to see those as the summer goes on, and then also we expect to be adopting our new budget at our June 13th meeting.
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