Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

The removal of Franklin’s Confederate monument, standing in the park between Clay Street and Meadow Lane, has been tentatively scheduled for June 26, according to City Manager Amanda Jarratt.

This is only a slight delay from the expected time frame mentioned during the May 24 Franklin City Council meeting, when Jarratt said the city anticipated the monument would be moved in mid-June based on the contractor’s schedule and having the concrete pad at the cemetery poured in advance.

The monument’s new home will be in Poplar Spring Cemetery.

In a June 9 email, Jarratt stated the monument “is tentatively scheduled for June 26 to be removed and reassembled July 10.”

The contractor for the relocation is Hampton Roads Crane & Rigging Company, which submitted a bid of around $35,000. The City Council had allocated $60,000 as a budget for the project.

The City Council voted 6-1 on Sept. 14, 2020, to relocate its Confederate monument from its place between Clay Street and Meadow Lane, where it has been for more than 50 years, to the cemetery.

As The Tidewater News has previously reported, city staff has demolished a gazebo in the cemetery and plans to build a concrete pad in its place large enough to accommodate the monument. Jarratt said there will be a few additional expenses in connection with the pad.