FAITH — The Veterans Day parade will make its way through downtown Faith this year instead of Salisbury, as the members of the Faith Board of Aldermen voted on Tuesday to allow the parade to take part in the town.

John Dobbs, service officer for the Rowan County Veterans Council, petitioned the board for approval on Tuesday, and said that they were looking to move away from Salisbury because the city had shown some uncertainty during the permitting process due to a planned N.C. Department of Transportation project going on.

“We’ve gotten some pushback from the city of Salisbury as far as projecting (NCDOT) construction plans this past year as well as this year. Moving forward, we would like to move the Salisbury portion to the town of Faith,” said Dobbs.

Dobbs said that only the public half of the parade would be moved, with the half that occurred on the Salisbury VA campus still planned as normal.

The members of the board of aldermen immediately voiced their approval and began thinking of ways they could add to the event, including a potential festival with music and live vendors.

“We have some ideas to make it a very special day, especially for your families. It’s just such an honor to be honest. We’re so happy to have the (American) Legion here to begin with, just look at our mural out there, this town supports our veterans daily,” said Alderman Jayne Lingle.

Dobbs said that the members of the council view Faith as being particularly veteran-friendly, so when they began to think about moving the parade Faith was their first option. Dwayne Richardson, a representative of the Faith American Legion post, said that they viewed the change as an opportunity to take the event “up a notch.”

Mayor Pro Tem Dale Peeler asked Dobbs if the veterans council would be the entity leading the parade and responsible for acquiring insurance, to which Dobbs said the parade would still be under their umbrella.

Mayor Randall Barger said the town would want to set up a separate events committee, with Granite Quarry-Faith Police Chief Todd Taylor, Rowan County Sheriff Travis Allen, two representatives of the Faith Board of Aldermen, representatives of the Faith American Legion post and representatives of the veterans council all serving on it. Barger said that he had already spoken with Allen, who told him that deputies had shown an interest in volunteering for the event to provide security.

Barger also said that the parade would likely be able to utilize the Faith Academy Charter School’s property and parking lot for staging, with the parade route starting at the school and heading south along Main Street.

After the discussion, the members of the board voted unanimously to allow the veterans council to move forward with holding the parade in Faith. Alderman Gary Gardner was excused from the meeting due to a health issue.