KANNAPOLIS — A statue memorializing Dale Earnhardt will be built in a park in Cannon Village, not the Village Park location where signs now indicate it will be placed.

A steering committee overseeing fund raising and planning for the Dale Earnhardt Tribute voted this morning to change the location after listening to public comment last week.

Another element of the memorial, a wall depicting Earnhardt’s life to be produced by motorsports artist Sam Bass, will be placed inside the Cannon Village Visitors Center as part of a tribute to Earnhardt and stock car racing, the committee decided.

City Councilman Paul Bessent led a committee that heard public comment and recommended the changes to the full steering committee.

“To consider changing the location from its original location may be questioned,” he said. “But in the opinion of the site selection subcommittee, it’s never too late to make the right decision.”

City officials and community members formed the steering committee last year after Earnhardt, the NASCAR racing legend and Kannapolis native, died in 2001 in a crash during the Daytona 500.

The committee looked at several potential sites but chose Village Park because they deemed it the best city-owned location available.

Some committee and community members questioned whether that was the right location, though, since the city hopes the memorial will help spur more tourism in Kannapolis.

Moving the site to Cannon Village also would dramatically reduce the cost of the memorial. Originally pegged at $700,000, the cost could be pared to half that amount or less because less preparation is needed at Cannon Village, committee members familiar with fund raising say.

Cannon Village owner Atlantic American Properties offered the small park at the corner of Main and West B streets, a site that sits across Main from a planned new railroad depot.

Though a formal agreement hasn’t been reached, Bessent said the committee likely will sign a 99-year lease on the park with Atlantic American Properties.

“We’re looking forward to working with the city,” said Phyllis Beaver, marketing director for Cannon Village, where shop owners hope more tourism will mean more potential customers in their stores.

The committee also decided to explore forming a non-profit organization to accept donations for the privately funded memorial and oversee it on a continuing basis, as well as a possible education fund in memory of Earnhardt.

And the committee discussed fund-raising ideas, which included the possibility of selling bricks to be placed in a plaza around the memorial or a walkway leading to it, and holding a second auction of racing memorabilia.

To date, the committee has gotten $22,486 in contributions, not counting money it spent on flyers promoting the memorial and the cost of holding an auction last year.

Contact Scott Jenkins at 704-797-4248 or sjenkins@salisburypost.com .