File photo
                                This is a rough draft of the John Coltrane mural that will be painted on the Raleigh Street side of the Opera House in downtown Hamlet.

File photo

This is a rough draft of the John Coltrane mural that will be painted on the Raleigh Street side of the Opera House in downtown Hamlet.

HAMLET — The planned John Coltrane mural will be coming to Hamlet after all.

The project was a part of the roughly $700,000 in last-minute cuts the Hamlet City Council made to their 2020-2021 budget in order to help withstand the hit from the Richmond County Board of Commissioners’ vote to change to an ad valorem sales tax distribution method. agreed in their May 12 meeting to cut the city’s $5,000 contribution to the project out of the

The mural is part of an effort by The Mural Shop to paint 15 murals of famous musicians in the towns they were born in in North Carolina. Coltrane, a pioneering jazz musician, was born in Hamlet on Sept. 23, 1926, and died on July 17, 1967 in Huntington, New York. The artist had originally planned to begin work on the mural in July — meaning costs would be incurred in the 2020-2021 fiscal year — but Interim City Manager Bill Zell informed them that the project would no longer be possible unless it was completed within the current fiscal year.

The artists have agreed to begin work on the mural June 1 and complete it by June 30, Zell said. This start date wouldn’t have been an issue were it not for the change to ad valorem, according to Zell.

“We’re praying for no rain,” he said.

In The Mural Shop’s proposal to the city, the mural would be painted on the Raleigh Street side of the Opera House in downtown Hamlet. The total cost of the project is $12,000, but the studio already has a sponsor who will cover $7,000 of that cost, and the city will cover the rest.

The mural would have a 10-year life expectancy, and the studio would have other obligations to maintain it.

“We guarantee a 10-year lifespan of the mural after proper preparation of the wall and clear-coat sealing,” reads the proposal. “We retain a standing contract to correct any issues that may occur to the mural (graffiti, external damage) within that lifespan which covers up to three independent returns for corrections.”

The studio received approval from the Coltrane estate to produce the mural.

The NAACP building on Hamlet Avenue was also considered as a location for the mural. Gerard A. Morrison, founder of the John Coltrane Music Edu-tainment Festival and a strong advocate for commemorating locals who went on to achieve greatness, said he feels “loud and resounding joy” that the mural is coming to Hamlet.

“I’m glad to see that his memory is finally being recognized and appreciated,” Morrison said. “This is long overdue.”

The Mural Shop is producing a mural of country music star Randy Travis in Marshville and a mural of singer Roberta Flack, who won the 2020 Grammy Award for Lifetime Achievement, in Black Mountain. The studio was also in talks to produce a train mural on the side of the Birmingham Drug building that faces the depot, a project that Mayor Bill Bayless expressed support for. But this project would be dependent on getting permission from the property owner.

Reach Gavin Stone at 910-817-2673 or [email protected].