Sidewalk Progress

Hello Friends and Neighbors!

Our new Miller Street Sidewalk project is proceeding nicely. We are very excited to have this wonderful addition to our neighborhood to bring NoMa closer to City Park, the Salisbury Greenway, and to increase the walkability of our neighborhood.

The curbs were poured this week along W. Miller St. The utility pole, which we reported earlier as being moved, is actually still there with some cables yet connected. We knew there were more utilities on that pole than just Duke Power, such as Time Warner, but can not say why it is taking so long to get both the utilities and the pole moved.

The work on the Jackson St./Lake Rd. sidewalk has also begun. City crews began this work on east end of Lake Rd, are rounding the corner, and working their way north on Jackson along the City Park side of the road. We are thrilled to have this happening as we originally did not anticipate this additional work until sometime next year.

Hurray! Miller St. Sidewalk and Crosswalk Project Finally Surfacing!!

We've been hearing the promises regarding the improvements along N. Main St. and Miller St. for months now and many of our neighbors have expressed frustration at the snail's pace with which the project has moved along. (Truthfully the snail probably moved faster!) It has just been announced that, finally, Salisbury City Council is expected to award the contract this Tuesday July 21st for installation of the new pedestrian crosswalk across N. Main St. at Miller St. and the new sidewalk along the south side of W. Miller St. from N. Main St. to Jackson St. Hurray!!!

The project is connected to the N.C. Health and Wellness Trust Fund's Fit Community Grant, which was awarded to the city last year. Connected with the sidewalk and crosswalk is a new walking program being rolled out by the City's Parks & Recreation Department - Striders for Life. The project ties into the many physical improvements planned for the N. Main Street area in the City's Small Area Improvement Plan and will additionally encourage healthier lifestyles for our residents here. Residents young and old will be able to get to City Park and Hurley Park via the sidewalks where currently they must walk in the streets to get to the parks.

The construction will reduce the width of West Miller Street from 34 to 26 feet with the addition of a 5-foot-wide sidewalk and a 3-foot planting strip. We are very excited to see this project finally reach reality!

Council meets at 4 p.m. Tuesday at City Hall, 217 S. Main St. where the project will be awarded. It would be wonderful if many of our NoMa residents could be there to witness the award and perhaps offer a round of applause!

North Main St Neighborhood Meeting - Apr 13th - 6:30PM - City Park Rec Center

Be sure to come to the neighborhood meeting this Monday to hear the update about the new sidewalks (at last!) planned for West Miller Street! We've been hearing about these improvements to the neighborhood for some time and now it appears very close to happening! This is your opportunity to hear about it first-hand from the City engineers and planners - your opportunity to ask questions.

The meeting will be held this Monday April 13th at 6:30 PM at the City Park Recreation Center on 316 Lake Drive in Salisbury.

We'll be hearing about the sidewalks and proposed crosswalk at North Main Street and West Miller Street. The sidewalk is the first step in a plan to connect our Old North Salisbury neighborhood to the city parks and the Salisbury Greenway system. After we get the West Miller Street sidewalk, we'll see more sidewalks go in along the 900 block of North Jackson Street along the City Park edge, then up and around Lake Drive and over to Hurley Park. The planned sidewalk improvements will provide safer, more convenient access to the parks for our neighborhood residents. These changes were recommended by our neighborhood residents who took part in the North Main Small Area Improvement Plan completed in 2007. The project is being funded by Salisbury City Council and a grant from the North Carolina Health & Wellness Fund as part of the Fit Community initiative. Members of the Old North Salisbury Association attended several of the grant meetings and were instrumental in having Salisbury become a grant recipient.

This is an exciting time for our community and we hope you will find the time to attend this meeting to both show your support and learn more about the whole process. Please come! The more we know, the more we can help initiate more improvements like this in the Old North Salisbury - North Main Street neighborhood.

We hope to 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!

THANKS FOR THE CELEBRATION!!!!

Wow!!! A HUGE Thank-You to all in the Old North Salisbury Neighborhood who came out to celebrate at our Fall Social Event yesterday!! We could not have had a more perfect day - blue skies, 68 degrees, golden sunshine, the foliage at City Park in all its crimson glory!! It was made - to - order!!

Our celebration started at about 2 o'clock yesterday - when our musicians began to appear and set up their stage, and volunteers started to arrive with their goodies! And did we ever have goodies! There was probably the Best-Ever Lasagna from Chef Santos by Goodfellas (Fisher St.), the Best-Ever Garlic Rolls from Cartucci's (Fisher St.), and the BEST-EVER Caesar Salad made with fresh spinach from Stelia's Restaurant & Martini Bar (N. Main St.). If you visit these fine restaurants downtown, be sure you tell them THANKS! How cool is it that our downtown merchants support the Old North Salisbury community!

We also had grilled sausages from N. Main St., giant oatmeal cookies from Scales St, a complete coffee, tea, hot-chocolate, hot-cider service from the Klaus' on 14th St., fried chicked from 11th St., and too many more yummy things to count - brownies, snack-mix, chips, homemade dips, jugs of sweet tea and green tea - our tables were overflowing! This truly was a community event!

. . . And the music! WOW! We are super grateful to Salisbury's finest original artists who came, set up, and played for us for 3 hours yesterday afternoon - as a donation to the neighborhood! Tripp Edwards and Alan Wyrick played their wonderful original music under the pavillion - these are Salisbury's home-grown artists destined for greatness! Tripp and Alan are multi-talented artists -not only song writers, but each plays a multitude of instruments. Tripp and Alan switched off on lead and bass guitar, while Jimbo Martin offered his magical drum experience, Jim Charles entwined the tunes with steel guitar, and Ian (sorry Ian - we'll put your last name here when we get it!) tickled the ivories. Hey! It's not every neighborhood picnic that gets this kind of royal treatment from the local music meistros!!! THANKS SO MUCH!!! We'll have pictures posted soon!

If you missed this wonderful opportunity to come out and celebrate - we will try to do this again in the Spring and perhaps again next Fall - twice annually. Over 400 flyers were distributed throughout the neighborhood. IF YOU DIDN'T GET ONE - LET US KNOW!! We want to know how to best make this work FOR YOU!!!

To offer feedback - you can comment on this entry below or send an email to the Old North Salisbury Association at

oldnorthsalisbury@gmail.com. We would love to hear from you!

Thanks to all who came & supported! To all who didn't make it ~ We Missed You!! See you in the neighborhood!

Party Day!!!! Celebrate Old North Salisbury!!!

Hey All! It's count-down now in the minutes to Celebrate Old North Salisbury at City Park!!

We got a beeeeaaauuutttiiifffuuulllll day!! Bring your dancin' shoes to get up and boogie to Tripp Edwards and Alan Wyrick! Bring your best recipe from your home-cookin kitchen and let's rock this neighborhood!

See you at the park!