Parks Master Plan Meeting

Hello Friends & Neighbors ~

Some of us from the Old North Salisbury Association got the opportunity to participate in the City of Salisbury's Parks & Recreation Master Plan public meeting held this past Thursday evening. This was a preliminary "voice of the public" brainstorming session to ask US what we want from our future city parks. A separate section of the meeting also focused on the concerns at Salisbury's Lincoln Park that has a 40-year old pool (Salisbury's only public pool!) and needs renovating.

At the meeting, people from the City and the Woolpert Engineers from Charlotte divided the attendees into groups where we listed anything and everything we wanted from our park systems. Despite the limited time to compile this we came up with quite a list! We were then asked to list our Top 5. I am afraid that pocket parks in NoMa (the North Main Neighborhood), while on the list, did not make it to the Top 5 as you can imagine. The Bike Trail was on everyone's list. We asked for new and improved Bike Trails both city-wide and in the parks - marked and designated for biking. Festivals or music events in the existing parks was another idea that made it to the top. The opinion was that festivals could possibly generate revenue to allow the City to take care of the parks and add the other features we desire. There were several other ideas - all very very good. Now we just have to see where that takes us!

The engineers are going to take the data from that meeting and compile a plan. There will be another Public Meeting in May. We'll announce it here but keep an ear to the ground for the date. They will present the plan there and again we will have opportunity to voice opinions and suggestions.

We do wonder where the City will obtain the funding for all these wonderful ideas and there was plenty of discussion about that. One idea was interdepartmental sharing of budgets. Couldn't the Roads & Streets department install and maintain a city-wide Bike Trail and share the costs with Parks & Recreation? Just a thought!

Public Meeting Today ~ 6:30 PM

Hey Everyone! Reminder!

Don't forget to go to today's Public Meeting - 6:30PM - at the Salisbury Civic Center on Boundary St. The meeting is about the City of Salisbury's Parks Master Plan!

See you there!

Sidewalks & Crosswalks Coming to W. Miller St.

Hey All!

As you know, the long promised sidewalks and crosswalks are coming to the W. Miller St crossing at N. Main St.!!!

The Old North Salisbury Association's President, Sue McHugh of N. Main St., attended a meeting at Salisbury City Hall today as part of the Fit Community Grant Partnership that is funding this improvement to our neighborhood. Here is what we learned:

A Public Neighborhood Meeting is scheduled for Monday April 13th at the City Park Recreation Center's Activity Room from 6:30PM - 7:30PM (or maybe 8:00PM if question/answer period extends). A postcard from the City is expected very soon - maybe next week that will invite our neighborhood participation and some brief details. Most critically, we need to have our W. Miller St. residents on board with the changes as they will be most directly impacted by the work.

The impact should be minimal. The residents on the south side of the street will be asked to sign easement papers that give the City permission to work on the property. Now in truth - most of the work will be on City property, however this is a courtesy measure should any disruption occur to privately held property. If such disruption does occur, it is general policy to put it back BETTER than it was. Some driveways will be temporarily torn up, however they City will place a stone entryway to the drives so that people can still get up into their property. They may be required to park in the street for one day as concrete is poured. Additionally, where W. Miller St. connects to N. Jackson St will be temporarily closed during the construction.

The sidewalk will be 5-feet wide with a 2-foot planting strip or lawn between it and the curb. Pedestrian level street lighting, something we had really hoped for, is not budgeted for but will be considered as the project moves forward. And speaking of moving forward . . . we should expect groundbreaking in May 2009! The project should take 3-months to complete so we are looking at perhaps an August completion date.

We saw drawings that show the sidewalks and some of the other engineering work we may not often consider - storm drainage, moving utilities such as electric/phone/cable - and the positioning of fire hydrants and sewer lines.

Next year, as Phase II of the project emerges, we'll see additional sidewalks along N. Jackson St. at City Park to Lake Drive and along Lake Drive to Hurley Park. This is when we may expect to see signage incorporated - like neighborhood entrance signs!

The overall aim is to ultimately connect the North Main neighborhood to the Salisbury Greenway and to incorporate a very fine-tuned large-scale walking program.
Please make EVERY EFFORT to come to the April 13th Neighborhood Meeting! Encourage your friends, neighbors, relatives, EVERYBODY to attend. This is our first structural neighborhood revision toward the North Main Small Area Improvement Plan and we NEED TO SUPPORT IT!

Thanks, All!

Some NSP Funding Could Come This Way . . .

We reported yesterday that Salisbury is not slated to receive a grant to assist with home foreclosure from HUD's Neighborhood Stabilization Fund. However if you check yesterday's posting, we listed (3) state-wide agencies were listed as recipients. The grants were issued on a "greatest needs" basis. It turns out that Rowan County was assessed as a greatest need county and the three statewide organizations selected will ensure the areas of greatest need in the 23 counties receive assistance. So we may see some funding after all. We are not sure how this will be distributed or how one goes about applying, if necessary, to receive the funding. We'll try to learn more and post here as we become educated.

In North Carolina, areas in 23 counties met the “greatest need” criteria: Alamance, Brunswick, Buncombe, Cabarrus, Catawba, Cumberland, Dare, Davidson, Durham, Edgecombe, Forsyth, Gaston, Guilford, Iredell, Johnston, Mecklenburg, New Hanover, Pitt, Randolph, Rowan, Union, Vance and Wake.

Bad News ~ No NSP Funding for Salisbury!

We received notification that Salisbury will not be receiving any Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP) funding. This is very sad news - we were certain that we were well positioned to receive an award. The NSP program was to have assisted communities hit hardest by the housing crisis. States were required to identify areas of greatest need based on the number of foreclosure starts and other housing-related statistics.

Here are the folks in NC who DID receive a portion of the $52 million in grants:

Local Government Recipients: City of Raleigh, $2.5 million; Wake County, $2.5 million; City of Charlotte, $2.5 million; City of Greensboro, $2.5 million; City of Winston-Salem, $2.5 million; City of High Point, $2.5 million; City of Gastonia, $2 million; Henderson/Vance County, $2 million; City of Durham, $2 million; City of Rocky Mount, $2 million; City of Lexington, $2 million.

Non-profit Agency Recipients: St. Augustine, in Raleigh, $2 million; Charlotte Housing Authority, $2 million; Guilford Habitat for Humanity, $2 million; Forsyth Habitat for Humanity, $2 million; Passage Home (in Wake County), $2 million; Greensboro Housing Authority, $2 million.

Statewide Agency/intermediary Recipients: Self-Help Credit Union, $2.5 million; N.C. Community Development Initiative, $3.5 million; and N.C. Housing Finance Agency, $4 million.

There should be additional NSP funding available in the federal stimulus package and the city is hoping to be eligible to apply from some of that funding. Decisions on this program are still being finalized at the federal level.

Perhaps we should feel fortunate. If others are in greater need than we are here in terms of foreclosures, we should count our blessings ~ regardless of how much we looked forward to the revisions this grant could have afforded our community. We will continue our preservation efforts here on a grass-roots level - one house at a time!

City Parks Master Plan Public Meeting Mar 26 6:30PM

Hi Neighbors!

The City of Salisbury is holding a Parks & Recreation Master Plan Public Meeting!

Day: Thursday, March 26

Time: 6:30 p.m.

Where: Salisbury Civic Center

Address: 315 S. Boundary Street

We encourage as many of you as can possible make it to partake in this public discussion. It will include future planning for a number of items such as:

• Expanding existing parks and greenways


• Adding NEW parks (especially important for the Old North Salisbury - North Main St Area)


• Adding specialty parks such as dog parks, x-sports parks (skate-boarding, bmx-biking, motocross, etc.)


• Adding public swimming pools



• Adding athletic facilities



• Additional biking/hiking trails


• Picnic areas

As the City develops this new Master Plan, as any of the items above become incorporated, the taxpayers here will be footing the bill, so you may wish to have a voice!

There is an online survey you can take on the City's Parks and Recreation website (www.salisburync.gov/pkrec) that asks your opinion about a lot of these topics. It takes very little time to fill out and especially if you can't make it to the City's meeting, you may want to input your choices through the survey.

Why should us Old North Salibury residents care about a city-wide park master plan? Salisbury's North Main Small Area Improvement Plan had incorporated several small pocket parks in OUR area. If this doesn't make it to the Master Plan ~ we may never see the reality of these areas that will offer so much to this neighborhood!

City Park New Tennis Courts - Grand Opening This Saturday!!!

Neighbors & Friends!!!

The brand-spankin' new City Park Tennis Courts will open to the public via a grand re-opening ceremony this Saturday, March 21 at 10:00 a.m. at the courts on West Miller Street in City Park. Any and all can attend and the City will be offering light refreshments!

The City Park Tennis Courts were closed down for reconstruction last summer and work began in August 2008. See Old North Salisbury's post "Check Out Changes at City Park" dated August 21, 2008. The work was expected to be complete in about 3 months but if you visit the City's Parks and Recreation homepage (www.salisburync.gov/pkrec ) there is a slide show there about the renovation that lets you see the magnitude of the work.

If you have never been to the City's Parks and Recreation website - it is worthwhile to check out. In addition to the two beautiful parks we have near the North Main St. area, Hurley and City Parks, there are several others throughout the City. Some have additional amenities that we may not have here. If you go to the www.salisburync.gov/pkrec website, you will also find a survey there that you can do in minutes online. It asks about future parks and amenities such as water features, athletic facilities, dog parks and loads of other fun stuff. This is really your opportunity to have a voice so you are encouraged to link-in and participate.

As you may know, part of the North Main Small Area Improvement Plan included several pocket parks in this neighborhood! Wouldn't it be grand to see some of our vacant lots turned into small parks, both scenic and useful to the community? And Hey! If you have NOT seen a copy of the North Main Small Area Improvement Plan, contact Janet Gapen/City Planner/City of Salisbury (704-638-5230 or jgape@salisburync.gov) to get a copy. It is very interesting and shows all the hard work our neighbors put forth to come up with this plan!

Thanks All!

Spring Spruce Up Week Coming ~ April 20 - 24!

Hey All!

Just so you know ~ our Spring Spruce-Up Week will soon be here! You may wish to start getting ready now! The weather is (finally!) starting to cooperate and we can start getting things ready to take to the curb!

Here's the official announcement from the City:

CITY OF SALISBURY
COMMUNITY APPEARANCE COMMISSION & PUBLIC SERVICE DEPARTMENT
SPRING SPRUCE UP WEEK & APPLIANCE AND TIRE COLLECTION
April 20 - 24, 2009

The City of Salisbury will pick up your old appliances, tires without rims and extra bagged trash the week of April 20 – 24, 2009. Place the items at the curb on your regular collection day before 7:00 a.m.

**NO BUILDING MATERIALS (carpet, padding, sheetrock, windows, lumber, commodes, sinks, etc.) WILL BE COLLECTED

This collection is for RESIDENTS living inside the city limits of Salisbury only (NO BUSINESSES). If you have questions, please call Public Services at (704)638-5260.

Thanks in advance to all for keeping our neighborhood beautiful!

W. Miller Street Improvement Update!!!

Friends & Neighbors ~

We learned today that the Salisbury City Engineers are just finishing up the designs for W. Miller Street. Remember that the plan, under the Fit Community Grant that Salisbury was awarded last year, was to install a crosswalk across N. Main St. at Miller St. and to install new sidewalks down W. Miller St. to N. Jackson St. to allow our neighborhood better walking access to our City Park and Hurley Park.

We hear the goal is to get the construction underway in May!!! HOORAY!!!

The City would like to hold a neighborhood meeting in April to explain the changes , especially for those who live on W. Miller who will be most impacted during construction. If you have an opinion about what day of the week is generally best to ensure the best attendance, we encourage you to pass it along to the Old North Salisbury Association. You can leave a comment after this posting or email us at oldnorthsalisbury@gmail.com.

Since Tuesdays are the City's City Council and Planning Board days, we should avoid that day if we can. We will probably suggest a Monday evening in April in order to give folks time to get it on their calendar.

This work is the first physical improvement to come out of the North Main Small Area Improvement Plan that many of our neighborhood resident worked very hard to compile for the City and was approved in July 2007! In addition to the crosswalk/sidewalk we should expect W. Miller St. to be narrower and come to a T-stop instead of the sweeping curves at Jackson St. that do not encourage pedestrian speed traffic. There should also be a planting strip. (and we are really crossing our fingers that the plan includes pedestrian level lighting!)
 

Please make every effort to attend this meeting. Again, if you have a preference of meeting days, let us know. When we hear the confirmed date, we will post it here and on our calendar below, as well as via a direct emailing to all our members.

Thanks to all, as always, for your commitment to making this great downtown neighborhood the best!

Neighborhood Stabilization Program Update!

Neighbors & Friends:

You may have been hearing about HUD's new Neighborhood Stabilization Program that is to provide emergency assistance to state and local governments to acquire and redevelop foreclosed properties that might otherwise become sources of abandonment and blight within their communities. The Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP) provides grants to every state and certain local communities to purchase foreclosed or abandoned homes and to rehabilitate, resell, or redevelop these homes in order to stabilize neighborhoods and stem the decline of house values of neighboring homes. The Historic Salisbury Foundation went through the process of filing for Salisbury to receive this grant. We thought we were in a good position to be awarded.

HSF is still waiting to hear about the awarding of grants for the Neighborhood Stabilization Program from HUD. This is quite a delay as results were expected over three weeks ago and there was extreme pressure to submit applications, award grants and obligate the funds quickly. We have been given no reason for the delay.

NSP funds may be used for activities which include, but are not limited to:

• Establish financing mechanisms for purchase and redevelopment of foreclosed homes and residential properties;
• Purchase and rehabilitate homes and residential properties abandoned or foreclosed;
• Establish land banks for foreclosed homes;
• Demolish blighted structures;
• Redevelop demolished or vacant properties
  
  If you'd like to know more about the program you can read about it on HUD's website at:
• http://www.hud.gov/offices/cpd/communitydevelopment/programs/neighborhoodspg/
• or just Google "HUD NSP" and it should appear at the top of the search list.

As soon as we hear something more, we'll pass it along!

Our Neighbors Set Their Own Block Straight!

Hello Friends & Neighbors ~


We recently heard from one of our neighbors on 14th St about how successful they have been in getting the "traffic" at a neighboring house to settle down . . . completely! Our neighbors had nothing but good things to say about our Salisbury Police force ~ that they were most helpful in every way that they could be. They said that there will be instances where the police truly can not do the things we may expect, but when they can exercise enforcement they will. Our neighbors combined this effort of working with the police with an effort to work with the offending household's landlord! The landlord otherwise would have had no idea that this activity was taking place in and on their property. The landlord also visited the house and let the tenants know that their activity was unacceptable. The "traffic" at this house has ceased.


This is amazing testimony to what the grass-roots efforts can do to help in the neighborhood. Too many either complain - to one another - or turn their heads, believing that nothing can be done. Not true! We need to be involved, watching out for one another and our own segments of the neighborhood. The Old North Salisbury neighborhood is long and wide-spread: from Lafayette St. to the Spencer Town line at 17th St., from Railroad St. to Jackson St., we each have a segment of the neighborhood that is more "our own". Often, what goes on at the north end up 15th, 16th, & 17th Streets and the boulevards in between is unknown to the folks at the opposite end up by Henderson, Steele, and Miller Streets. If we each concentrate on what we can see and manage, we will be more effective as a whole.


We are grateful to our neighbors on 14th for (1) sharing this success story, (2) being proactive in managing activity in their section of the neighborhood, and (3) impressing upon us that we can each have the same success in our own areas of the community.

Thank you & congratulations on this success!

What Were You Doing March 1st 2009?

Well we don't know what the rest of the world was doing on March 1st, but here in the beautiful North Main neighborhood at about 6:30 PM Sunday night we started to watch one of the most amazingly thick and steady snowfalls we've seen in a decade! We were very lucky not to have power lines break during this heavy, wet snowfall, and many trees suffered branch loss (not to mention our poor squashed and probably very confused spring flowers!), but when was the last time you saw anything so beautiful?! Children were delighted - you could not have had better snowball-snowman makin' snow!

Here's a few pictures of the neighborhood the next morning:

These crummy cell phone pictures sure don't do it justice, especially when the sun was making the WHOLE WORLD SPARKLE, but . . .

. . .Ya Gotta Luv It!



brrrrrr!

Councilman Takes Tour of Neighborhood

Hello Friends & Neighbors:

On February 4th, Board Members of the Old North Salisbury Association invited one of our City Council members to take a tour of the Old North Salisbury neighborhood with us. We knew that City Council was soon scheduled to take their 24th Annual Future Directions and Goal Setting Retreat February 12-13, 2009. With this in mind, we invited Councilman Bill Burgin, a former long-term resident of the North Main area, to tour the neighborhood and listen to some of our specific concerns. We took special care to outline many of the positive changes we have seen in the neighborhood over the past few years. We demonstrated where people have moved in, purchased and renovated our historic homes, and stayed to live in the homes, instead of renting them out. However we wished to call special attention to the need for ordinance enforcement in our area. We pointed out homes that have been allowed to deteriorate, homes that have been altered in appearance outside of the historic codes. We pointed out our 'hot-spots' for trouble, and we know every neighborhood has them, as well as our highlights. We had further discussions about the City's North Main Small Area Improvement Plan that appears to have no traction at all, because we have seen little impact to the area - even though the plan was approved at City Council in the summer of '07. We wished to impress upon Bill, in hopes he would share this with other Council and City Planning personnel, that we are determined to continue to make positive changes to this important Salisbury community and that we need the City's help to do so.

We are very grateful to Councilman Bill Burgin for taking the time with us that cold February morning to examine the neighborhood and hear our concerns. We thank Pat Sylvester, Sean Myers, and Sue McHugh for taking the time to conduct the tour and outline the specific topics and issues.

Bill urged us to keep going with our progress. He said that, "it is North Main's time and time for the City to devote attention here.". He further urged us to come forth at City Council Meetings with a formal presentation of our concerns. We have been discussing this at Board Meetings but have yet to develop the presentation or make the plans to get on the Council agenda. But with the positive reinforcement from our Councilman, we are better positioned to make this happen in the near future.