SPRING LAKE -- Spring Lake’s Board of Aldermen is expected on Monday to pass an ordinance declaring a road closure for the town’s Veterans Day ceremony.
The board meets at 6 p.m. in the Grady Howard Conference Room of the Spring Lake municipal complex.
The Veterans Day ceremony will take place on Nov. 10. It will also include the unveiling of a mural at the corner of Spring Avenue and Main Street.
According to the N.C. Department of Transportation, there are no other activities or road maintenance projects scheduled during the time of the event, so the state agency only requests an adopted ordinance by the town to close the road.
The Veterans Day event is co-hosted by the Spring Lake Military and Veterans Advisory and the Appearance and Sustainability committees.
The mural, which took three days to paint, will also be unveiled. Artist Max Dowdle, who was contracted by the town for the project, said this is his 30th mural painted this year; he’s done nearly 70 during his career.
“It’s really ramped up in the last 18 months,” he said of his work. “Coming out of Covid, municipalities started embracing public art.”
Dowdle’s background in art combined with his love for murals while helping a friend in New Jersey.
“I didn’t really feel it was for me at the time, but then I painted the entire Durham City Hall in 2019 and it started to become a full-time profession,” he said.
Dowdle has painted numerous murals across the state, as well as in Virginia, New Jersey and Washington, D.C. He has committed to other mural projects through March of next year, and has been engaged in a new project through N.C. Main Street, which calls for 100 murals across North Carolina’s 100 counties.
He said he’d love for Spring Lake to be one of the first in the new project series starting in April.
“There has been an awesome response from this community,” Dowdle said.
As he and other volunteers painted last Friday, passers-by stopped to provide a case of water and a local store around the corner donated more water and snacks for volunteers.
Christopher Larson and his wife, Kathleen Welloffman-Larson, found out about the project through a local news report and were painting alongside Buffy Taylor, who is training under Dowdle as a professional artist. Other volunteers included children who donated their time after their school days at Village Christian Academy and Warrenwood Elementary School ended.
Alderman Raul Palacios, who serves as an ex-officio board member of the Appearance Committee, stopped to share his thanks with volunteers and express appreciation. He said he hopes this will be the first of many on the new Spring Lake Art Trail.
Cynthia Wilt, a member of the Spring Lake Appearance and Sustainability Committee and the chairwoman of the mural project, said she hopes the committee will be able to hire Dowdle again — and this time concentrate on local legends and heroes. She said the committee has already been offered wall space in Spring Lake for another mural.
Dowdle said that close to a dozen volunteers helped in the first two days of his work and the project was able to stay on schedule through the end.
For the unveiling, Dr. David Dickerhoff, who serves on the Appearance and Sustainability Committee, said that First Presbyterian Church at 101 Spring Ave. will host a continental breakfast before the ceremony.
Gen. Dan Allyn, a retired Army general who served as the 35th vice chief of staff of the Army and the commanding general of the 18th Airborne Corps and U.S. Forces Command, will be the main speaker.
Other agenda items for Monday's meeting include an update from the contracted alliance code enforcement agency and a financial update from the Local Government Commission.
