From Staff Reports

To enclose the Vance Monument in a shroud to shield the allegedly racist monument from public view, the City of Asheville reportedly paid a contractor $18,500 for his assistance with the project.

What’s more, after the first 28 days, $2,600 per month will be due in rent — for scaffolding and gray opaque windscreen material. The money for the project will come from the city’s general fund.

Zebulon B. Vance, who the monument memorializes, was a Confederate military officer in the American Civil War, the 37th and 43rd governor of North Carolina and a U.S. senator — and a slave-owner.