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!