EAST SPENCER — The East Spencer Board of Aldermen voted to change the name of Robin Circle to Hillian Street in honor of the late Tony Hillian, who died in January of 2022 at the age of 47.

Multiple residents spoke in favor of the renaming and even more attended the meeting to witness the outcome of the vote. The meeting was so well-attended that the board room was filled and residents were forced to stand outside the room to watch.

One resident, Alisa Russell, listed off Hillian’s accomplishments as a way to argue that he should be honored with the name change. She noted that Carl Torbush, former head football coach at UNC-Chapel Hill, had a street named after him despite the fact that he moved away from East Spencer at the age of 11.

“We’re arguing about a street name for somebody who was born in East Spencer and moved at age 11. So whoever the aldermen were before, they take care of business and recognize their citizens. He didn’t even grow up here but he has a street named after him. If we’re voting on the street name based on merit of service, then it should be a unanimous decision that this street is changed,” said Russell.

The aldermen vote was not unanimous, but the motion to rename the street did pass, with three voting for and two voting against. Mayor Barbara Mallet was not present at the meeting, so Mayor Pro Tem Shawn Rush acted as mayor, meaning that he did not get to vote unless it was as a tie-breaker. Aldermen Albert Smith, Dwayne Holmes and John Noble III voted for the change and Alderwoman Delores High and Alderman Curtis Cowan voted against.

Cowan said later in the meeting that he voted against the motion because he believed that there needed to be other ways to honor prominent East Spencer residents than renaming streets. Although Rush was not allowed to vote, he spoke before the vote to explain his reasoning for being against the renaming.

“When this request was brought several months ago, I started to get phone calls, passionate speeches and reasons why and why not. So I’ll tell you, I’m not going to vote to change one family’s history of Robin Circle to please somebody else,” said Rush.

Of the three who voted for the change, both Holmes and Noble spoke about their reasoning for supporting it. Noble said before the vote that he supported the change because he knew how much Hillian meant to the town and people who lived in it. Holmes spoke later in the meeting and said although changing the name did not affect him, he could see how supportive people were of the change.

“A name is a name. You can change anything, but Tony did do a whole lot, and there’s other people who did a lot for the town too, but sometimes people need that clarification of that name to make sure things will go the way they want them to go,” said Holmes.

Everyone present at the meeting agreed that Hillian needed to be honored in some way, but the only disagreement came in the method of honoring. Rush and an attendee mentioned that they believed Hillian should be honored with a scholarship because of his work with kids.

Hillian had a long list of accomplishments, some of which include receiving the Mayor’s Medal from then-Salisbury Mayor Margaret Kluttz, was named to the BET Top 10 Teens around America and received the Martin Luther King Jr. Humanitarian Award.