Happy New Year ~ Street Cleaning in Process!

Today the City of Salisbury began efforts in earnest to respond to our request to have our granite curbs, gutters, and roadway cleared of street-weeds and trimmed.  

We spotted the curb trimming along North Main Street today, and the street cleaner is in action too!

We requested that City services attend to the street appearance at City Council meeting in November.  We adhere that the North Main Corridor is a very visible gateway into the City of Salisbury and a great opportunity to make a good first impression.  Normally, citizens and residents of Salisbury are expected to maintain their property frontage, even though this is City property.  However, along N. Main Street, where traffic is an issue, we stated that we cannot expect our residents to stand in the road to trim street weeds and knowing that the City has the tools to manage this, we asked if they would please consider helping us out!

Thank you, Mayor Woodson, City Council members, and City Manager John Sofley, for making this happen!  What a nice way to start the new year!





North Main Neighborhood
northmainneighborhood@gmail.com

NOMA Project Dates: March 9th and April 27th!!!

Hello North Main Neighbors & Friends! 

Representatives from the NOMA (The North Main Neighborhood) and the City of Salisbury's Community Appearance Commission met Monday February 18th to discuss possible improvements to the appearance of the North Main Street corridor.  The City has been receiving complaints as to Main Street's appearance, and as North Main Street is the last remaining residential corridor into the City of Salisbury, some attention is kindly being given to help us upgrade this section of our neighborhood.

Proposed were the following improvements:

• A possible improvement to the lot where the old gas station stood at the southeast corner of E. 11th Street and N. Main Street.
• Possible planters at the 4-corners at the intersection of 11th Street and N. Main Street.
• Painting of one home (this home will need to be in reasonable condition, owner-occupied, and a one-story dwelling)

We also discussed cleaning up our "urban forest" at the corner of Railroad Street and E. Steele Street. While not along the N. Main Street corridor, this wooded area is problematic for the neighborhood and its owners, the Historic Salisbury Foundation, have kindly agreed to help clean this area up, clearing the brush away to give us a cleaner and more visible green space.

The success of these projects hinges on our ability to rally volunteers for these projects.  Will each of you please start talking about this to your neighbors and friends?

The clean-up of the Railroad St/Steele St woods is scheduled for Saturday March 9th. Volunteers need only SHOW UP between 9 am and 12 noon, with gloves, sturdy shoes or boots, and if they would like to bring any loppers or other landscape tools, this would be appreciated.  The City and the HSF will provide other heavy-duty brush removal equipment.

We additionally discussed the potential to add some street~scaping to the old Duke Power building in our small commercial section on the bend roughly between 12th and 14th streets.

The plant and/or paint day is tentatively scheduled for April 27th....but please stay tuned for confirmation and more details.

Thank you in advance for helping to support these improvements to our neighborhood!

Community Appearance Representative to Meet with NOMA Representatives!

At the City's September Community Appearance Commission meeting, held the first Wednesday of each month at 4PM in City Council Chambers, letters from two Salisbury citizens were read to commissioners that offered complaints about how the North Main section of the city, the main residential corridor and entry to Salisbury,  has been ignored by the City and is in need of attention.  We tend to agree!  We were pleased and proud to benefit from new sidewalks on W. Miller and N. Jackson Streets as a part of the Fit Community Grant, and we were especially grateful when the City used use that same block to plant flowering crab apple trees as part of the Arbor Day celebration two years ago....but since then the interest seems to have fallen by the wayside.

Due to this communication the City recently received about our neighborhood, Barbara Perry, Chairperson of the Community Appearance Commission, will soon be interested in talking to a small group of representatives from NOMA for our input.  Ms. Perry was unaware but reminded that an entire North Main Small Area Improvement Plan had been approved by City Council in July of 2007 that indeed was a product of the voice of the community.  Many of you may have participated in that plan through a series of meetings that were held at the City Park Recreation Center through 2006 and 2007.  The North Main Plan, that included pocket parks, crosswalks, landscaping, and street parking, has never been implemented, even incrementally, due to reported lack of funds.

If you are interested in being a representative of NOMA when Ms Perry approaches us, please contact NOMA at themainneighborhood@gmail.com, or call Sue McHugh at 704.577.9965. If you are interested in obtaining a copy of the North Main Small Area Improvement Plan, please contact Diana Moghrabi at dmogh@salisburync.gov.

Community Watch Program Anyone?

Hello Friends & Neighbors!

It seems some time ago our NOMA neighborhood was working on a Community Watch Program, but we hear it fell by the wayside. Last year we tried implementing Quadrant Captains (the normal programs use Block Captains) in an effort to reach out to our closest neighbors, monitor acitivities we think might be questionable, and in general provide better communication with our neighbors. This has also been difficult for us to organize. How do we best communicate with each other to make a better living place for all of us?

NOMA recently received a note from Officer Ann Cooper of the Salisbury Police Force asking if we might like to re-generate some interest in a Neighborhood Watch program. An email sent to our members indicated a positive response.

We are going to invite Officer Cooper to our next meeting. An agenda will be forthcoming.

If you have not attended a NOMA meeting, please know that you are more than welcome! We do not close our doors to our neighbors (many neighborhoods hold Board of Director meetings only) and welcome your input whether it be a project you would like NOMA to undertake or just a concern we can help address. Our idea list is HUGE and many of the projects are FUN (not just work! - like our Fork & Cork event!) so please join in - you will be greeted with open arms.

Additionally, a program such as a neighborhood watch organization takes people to pull it off ~ it can't happen on its own!

You should also be aware that the Salisbury Police Dept. holds a SNAG meeting every first Wednesday of the month at their factility. It is at 10:00AM and offers us an opportunty to be involved with how the police interact and solve issues with and in our NOrth Main Neighborhood.

The next NOMA meeting is scheduled for TUESDAY MAY 25th @ 7:00PM at the KOKO JAVA Coffee Shop ~ corner of N. Main St. and E. Kerr! See you then!

Do You Know About the SNAG Meetings - Every 1st Wednesday

Most of us who live here will agree that the North Main Neighborhood, N. Main Street from Lafayette to 17th St and Railroad St to N. Jackson St, is a pretty great place to live with friendly neighbors, great homes, and a safe place to walk and live. From time to time, as with any downtown neighborhood, we experience an activity that is less than desirable. Our neighbors on 14th St. have reported how they recently involved the Salisbury Police Department to help with neighboring nefarious activities there and complimented the Police on their response and their willingness to help.

For those of us who would like more Police attention in other parts of the neighborhood, there is a resource. The Salisbury Police Department encourages citizen/police interaction in order to build trust and partnerships. They have a monthly meeting, which is referred to as SNAG or Salisbury Neighborhood Action Group with citizen participation. This meeting has been on going since 1991 and meets the first Wednesday of each month, 10:30 am at the Salisbury Housing Authority on South Boundary St. behind the main Post Office (on Innes St). We encourage all our neighbors and residents to attend these meetings to discuss concerns, problems and solutions. We feel that this meeting is very important in fostering positive relationships and partnerships and may help reduce unwanted activities and visitors.

For more information, you can always call the Police Non-Emergency number: 704.638.5333. Yes - 10:30 AM is a tough hour to make for those with the typical 8-5 workday, but our attendance there could increase police patrolling here and thereby improve the quality of the neighborhood in general.

The Police Department business phone lines are staffed around the clock. We encourage you to call the business line for non-emergency type requests and we encourage you to call 911 for all emergencies.

The Salisbury Police Department ensured us that "the squeaky wheel gets the grease" so if we have issues we should be SURE to call and/or attend the SNAG meetings whenever possible.

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!