‘What we need to do’: Durham voters back bonds for parks, streets and sidewalks
Durham voters overwhelmingly approved a pair of bond referendums totaling $200 million Tuesday.
With all 61 precincts reporting, the bonds for parks and recreation and for streets and sidewalks each had over 70% support.
“Despite what might be happening at the national level, Durham is doing what we need to do to take care of Durham,” Mayor Leonardo Williams said late Tuesday night. “We’re getting safer streets. We’re getting safer sidewalks. We’re getting better parks.”
The bonds were essentially the only open, local questions on the ballot this fall in the Bull City. Most other races were uncontested or were decided in the spring primary, since the majority of the electorate votes Democratic.
The Durham County Board of Elections said over 179,518 voters cast ballots in Durham County, most of them in-person during the early voting period.
That’s over 71% of the electorate, which is slightly below 2020 turnout.
The bonds will increase property taxes to help pay for major infrastructure upgrades.
- $85 million for parks
- $75 million for new sidewalks and repairs to existing ones
- $40 million for street paving and repairs
The streets and sidewalks money will jumpstart construction of projects already mapped and in the pipeline:
The parks money will be split between two projects, both scheduled to open in summer 2028:
- An aquatic wonderland at Merrick-Moore Park beside Wheels Fun Park, a former skating rink reopening soon. The plans call for a lazy river, zero-depth entry pool, climbing wall and water slides.
- A pool, connecting trail and new play areas at Long Meadow and East End parks. The parks, on either side of Alston Avenue, were once racially segregated. The plans will “unite them physically and figuratively,” Parks Director Wade Walcutt has said.
Durham county commissioners elected
Three new county commissioners will join two incumbents, after two current board members lost in this spring’s Democratic Party primary and a third chose not to seek re-election
Only five names, all Democrats, were on the ballot for five open seats:
- Nida Allam, incumbent chair
- Wendy Jacobs, incumbent
- Michelle Burton, former president of the Durham Association of Educators
- Mike Lee, former chair of the Durham Public Schools Board of Education
- Stephen Valentine, an attorney and former planning commissioner
This story was originally published November 5, 2024 at 8:43 PM with the headline "‘What we need to do’: Durham voters back bonds for parks, streets and sidewalks."
