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Lunenburg County Officials to Let Voters Decide Statue Issue

   Written by on July 15, 2020 at 2:23 pm

LUNENBURG – A new law that went into effect on July 1 allows local governments across Virginia to remove or contextualize Confederate monuments on their town, city, or county property. This law along with a letter from Wiley and Carole Wallace of Lunenburg asking that the statue in front of the Lunenburg courthouse be removed, had the Lunenburg County Board of Supervisors discussing options last Thursday night at their July meeting.

The supervisors ultimately voted 5-2 to let the citizens of Lunenburg make the decision as the group will add a referendum to the November ballot.

This decision will help county officials decide what to do with the County’s Confederate statue in front of the courthouse. 

Groups from both sides of this issue spoke during the meeting with Lunenburg County Attorney Frank Rennie IV offering the supervisors three options. The first option was for the supervisors to take no action and the statue would remain where it currently resides. The second option was to advertise the issue in a public hearing format or the third option was they could put the issue on the November ballot and allow local voters to decide the fate of the statue.

While the referendum vote does not mean that the county officials have to do what the majority in the vote say they would like to see happen to the statue, several of the members on the board noted that they would follow what the county residents wanted to take place.

Prior to the vote to allow the issue to be put on the November ballot, Supervisor Alvester Edmonds made a motion to have a public hearing to get input and possibly remove the statue. That motion was seconded by Edward Pennington; however, the motion ended with a 5-2 vote against holding the public hearing.

Instead, the group decided that they would approve the referendum on the November ballot. This would once again go to a 5-2 decision with Edmonds and Pennington voting against allowing the citizens to vote on this issue.

Supervisor Mike Hankins said that this is an issue that elicits strong responses from both sides and that it would be best for the community to ultimately decide if the statue stays or goes.

Supervisor Wayne Hoover said that allowing the residents to make the decision is the best way for the county board to proceed and that he would vote for whatever the decision made by the citizens was.

This is not the only nearby location making a decision on statues as Nottoway County supervisors have also been asked to relocate the Confederate memorial in front of Nottoway Courthouse. They will be meeting this week to see how they proceed.

*Photos by Robby Batte

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