RED SPRINGS — Just two days after Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday, the Red Spring Board of Commissioners during a special meeting Tuesday discussed enhancing the appearance of a memorial for the slain civil rights leader.

The granite monument was erected in 2006 at the highly visible corner of Main Street and East Fourth Avenue.

“What we have now is not aesthetically pleasing,” Mayor John McNeill said. “Even when it was first built, there were talks of needing to improve it. But the funds were never there.

“Now we have the funds available for vast improvements.”

The North Carolina Rural Center has provided the town a $3,500 grant for downtown revitalization. McNeill said work on the monument would be an acceptable use of that money.

“It would beautify Red Springs, not only for residents but everyone passing through,” he said.

McNeill said up to 10,000 cars that are traveling N.C. 211 pass directly by the memorial park each day.

McNeill presented the board with three artist renderings of improvements that included trees, shrubberies, benches and possibly a water fountain.

The commissioners held off on deciding which features they would like until they could meet with the artist.

Also on Tuesday, the board went into a closed session to discuss an evaluation Town manager Robert A. Shaumleffel Jr., who was hired in July. According to McNeill, the six-month evaluation was requested by Shaumleffel.

The town’s policy allows for a 5 percent raise after six months of employment, but no action was taken on the matter.

McNeill said the board would revisit the matter at its February meeting.

n Reach staff writer Ali Rockett at 910-272-6127 or arockett@heartlandpublications.com.