LUMBERTON — After Juneteenth became a federal holiday in 2021, the Lumberton City Council Wednesday approved a motion to consider how the city will celebrate the holiday.

The council unanimously approved the motion, which requests that City Manager Wayne Horne and city staff look into how other cities are celebrating the holiday, which is June 19 and commemorates the end of American slavery, and present options to Council during March’s monthly meeting to officially adopt the day as a federally-recognized holiday in the city of Lumberton.

“This holiday, Juneteenth, not only affects one segment of Americans, but when you factor in all of the inequality that affects the citizens on every level, across this city, county state and nation, in housing, employment, voting rights, and today, sadly, even in sports,” said Councilman John Cantey, who made the motion. “This is a day that we all as Americans can join in to celebrate freedom and equality all across this nation and city.”

“At the direction of the council we can prepare a report giving you specific information on the holiday, and also the trend within the state how other cities are approaching it, and just give you general information so you can make an informed decision,” Horne said in response. “We’ll bring that back to you in the March meeting.”

Cantey stated that the city explored options to recognize the holiday in 2021, when President Joe Biden signed into law on June 17 that Juneteenth become a federal holiday. That signing came just two days before the holiday, however, making it difficult for the city to pull any commemoration together so quickly.

“I spoke with the manager last year, and I do want everyone to know the manager gave it true diligence; he looked at everything he possibly could and what he could do,” Cantey said. “He was very receptive and very supportive. But the issue was it was only two days before the holiday, it being officially recognized, and that wasn’t enough time to meet with staff and go over the budget and come back to Council.”

During the discussion on Juneteenth, the city’s commemoration of Black History Month this month also was discussed.

“Over the past years the City of Lumberton, on behalf of the council, we used to do a proclamation commemorating Black History Month,” Cantey said. “I was wondering if we could get the council, on your behalf sir, to issue a proclamation on Black History Month.”

“Not a problem, Councilman,” Davis replied.

In other business, Council approved a change order from contractor Terrahawk, LLC for the Tanglewood Drainage Project amounting to $122,573.10. This will cover new expenses within the project that were discovered during the first leg of drainage pipe installation from the Lumber River to Carthage Road, Public Works Director Rob Armstrong said.

Contingencies were built into the cost of the project and are within the budget covered by U.S. Economic Development Administration and Golden LEAF grant funds.

“We knew we’d probably find some things, discover things while we were in construction there,” Armstrong said. “Now that we’ve gone through there we have an itemized list of those items that we encountered that needed to be addressed. We built in a large contingency on this project, knowing that we would encounter things along the way.”

Council also approved a request by Public Works to award a project to American Pump Corp. for the sandblasting and painting of the lime tower and various outdoor piping around the Water Treatment Plant.

American Pump Corp. was the lowest bidder at $37,000; the city received two bids. Some $65,000 was budgeted for the project in the current fiscal year’s budget.

“This is well within our budget,” Armstrong said. “Some of our maintenance staff has taken on some of the repair work before going out to bid to kind of reduce our cost; we were able to do some of this work in house.”

Council also approved a rezoning request by Amit Patel for property located at 220 Jackson Court. The lot was previously the location of Shogun Buffet & Hibachi Grill, whose structure was torn down in June 2021, and previously was the location of Ryan’s Steakhouse.

The property was rezoned from B-4, general commercial, to B-5, highway service, for the purpose of a proposed 140-unit dual-branded Hilton Hotel.

A public hearing was held, with no comments made by any member of the public, Council or the applicant, before Council unanimously approved the rezoning.

In other business, Council:

— Approved to allocate $35,000 to the Lumberton Municipal Airport to aid in the purchase of an Automated Surface Observing System, which informs planes and the tower about weather conditions. The existing system has been disabled for about two years; Gary Lewis, the airport’s manager, said the replacement is grant funded, but funding from the city and county can help speed up the process; those funds will be reimbursed once the airport receives its grant funding.

— Set the date of a public hearing for a special use permit for Dominique Brown for the operation of a bar and lounge that serves food, with proposed operating hours of noon to 2 a.m. Thursday through Saturday, located on Roberts Avenue; and for a rezoning request by Chase Howard for two adjacent lots on Roberts Avenue across from Sonic Restaurant for the operation of a car wash. Regarding an annexation request by Bethel Baptist Church, located on Hornets Road, Council authorized the city clerk to investigate the petition.

— Appointed Greg Prevatte, the city’s electric utilities interim director, as the first alternate for the North Carolina Eastern Municipal Power Agency. Councilman John Carroll currently serves as commissioner to the NCEMPA and City Manager Wayne Horne is the second alternate.

— Appointed Jennifer Whitley and Melvin Morris to the Library Board; Whitley will serve a full term that expires June 30, 2028, in the seat previously held by Nancy Martin. Morris was appointed to fulfill the unexpired term of Priscilla Leazer, which expires June 30, 2025.

— Approved the final major subdivision plat and street acceptance for the Autumn Leaf Court subdivision, requested by B.G. French. A letter of credit for $50,000 will be submitted to cover unfinished improvements, which includes final paving and landscaping and should be completed by the end of the month.

— Approved the allocation of $1,150 in Community Revitalization Funds to the Lumberton High School cheerleading team, to help with expenses as they compete at UCA High School Cheer Nationals in Orlando, Florida.

— Approved the reimbursement of $486.61 to Councilwoman Melissa Robinson; she received $1,350 in CRF for a community toy giveaway, which exceeded that amount by $270.43, and $850 for the O Give Thanks event, which exceeded that amount by $216.68.