LAURINBURG — The Hometown Heroes banners could be lining the downtown of Laurinburg very soon.
The Laurinburg City Council unanimously approved the change of the ordinance which would allow for banners to be put on the decorative poles in downtown Laurinburg. The topic of the banners has been a hot topic with the council who have discussed it several times over the past few months.
When the idea was originally brought to the council it was just for double-sided banners that would recognize local veterans in the community — but it brought up the question of what about other organizations who might want to do something similar.
During the April council meeting, it was requested that the Downtown Advisory Committee along with the two American Legion posts in the city about its opinion of the banners before the ideas being given to the city attorney to create the ordinance.
“Any banner is going to be only on our downtown decorative poles preapproved by community development on a first come, first serve basis,” said Community Development Director Michael Mandeville. “Not for commercial or political activity. The non-profit will be responsible for all costs associated with this and the banners must comply with the hardware we have and they must fill every pole we have. It’s all or none type of deal and the community development department will set the timeframe, which is two months.”
The current city code doesn’t allow for anyone in the city to put up any kind of banners so the amendment would allow for other organizations to put banners up with approval.
Councilmember Mary Jo Adams brought up that it’s not really Hometown Heros anymore but rather a city of Laurinburg banner.
“They were asking for the Hometown Heros banners to be up from May until November,” Adams said. “But this is really opened up for other organizations … the way I’m reading it is it’s not the Hometown Heros, ‘Tis the Season, non-profit handling this because they would just apply for two months to put their banners up.”
The banners would be paid for by the organization that would be putting them up and not by the city. The banner idea first came to the council several months ago as a way to highlight the local veterans by putting double-sided banners in downtown recognizing them.
Reach Katelin Gandee at kgandee@laurinburgexch.wpenginepowered.com. To support The Laurinburg Exchange, subscribe here: https://laurinburgexch.wpenginepowered.com/subscribe