by Rich Fowler
Staff Writer
Jerry Neville is a Carrboro native, UNC graduate and has worked for the Town of Chapel Hill for over twenty years. For the last seven years, he has volunteered at the Hargraves Community Center, teaching tennis to local kids on Saturdays.
He works in the brand-new Town Operations Center in the Traffic Engineering department, and for the last two months, every time he’s gone to the men’s room, he’s had to look at racist graffiti targeting him and using the N-word.
“I’ve been singled out personally. My rights have been violated, and months were allowed to pass by, and nothing was done about it,†Neville said. “My name was on that wall, and I’ve been threatened to be hung.â€
Neville brought his complaint to the Chapel Hill Town Council at its most recent meeting. He said that in the new Town Operations Center building, vandalism and racism had gone on unchecked.
He said that while steps were being taken to protect the facility against further vandalism now, he had heard nothing about his well-being. “Clearly the facility is not the only victim here. In this case, you have a human being being hurt,†Neville said.
Alan McSurely, legal redress chair of the local NAACP, has asked what the Chapel Hill Police and the town manager had done about the incident in the last two months.
“Nobody has told Jerry anything about a police investigation. The chief said they can’t provide any information about that investigation,†McSurely said.
Town Manager Roger Stancil said he was sorry that Neville had had to endure the graffiti. “I can assure you that we’re pursuing it with due diligence and that we will continue to communicate with Mr. Neville about how we are pursuing our investigation,†he said.
Council members were upset that it had taken so long to remove the graffiti.
“I’m appalled that he had to come and bring a petition,†council member Bill Thorpe said.
Council Member Mark Kleinschmidt said, “If something like that is up for five minutes after its discovery, then it’s five minutes too long.â€
“We’re going to be away from this desk, but we’re going to be here [in the community] all summer long,†Thorpe added, “and I want a report back way before we meet again, because this is nasty.â€