Arbor Day Celebration in NOMA Today ~ A Smashing Success!

It was like the sun came out just for us today in the North Main Neighborhood of Salisbury NC! It started out to be a rainy, cold morning, but right at 11:30 the sun came beaming out...right in time for the City of Salisbury's Arbor Day Celebration on our very own Miller Street...the new gateway to the City Parks!
Our City Councilman Brian Miller came out to read Mayor Susan Kluttz's Arbor Day proclamation. Urban Forestry Specialist Eric Muecke, N.C. Division of Forest Resources, attended and presented the Tree City USA designation to Salisbury for the 24th consecutive year! He said that not many cities in North Carolina have this distinction! Following the brief service, NOMA residents, volunteers from other parts of the city, and Salisbury Tree Board members joined together to plant ornamental flowering crab apple trees along West Miller Street between City Park and North Main. The public was invited to attend and participate in tree-planting activities.

West Miller Street was selected to allow tree plantings to complement our brand new sidewalks installed during 2009. The sidewalk project was funded through a Fit Community grant of the North Carolina Health & Wellness Trust Fund.
The City's Senior Planner Janet Gapen, who has been an enormous help to us here in NOMA, was also in attendance. In the news release for today's event, Janet stated, “Together, the new sidewalk and street trees will assist in fulfilling a goal of the North Main Neighborhood Association (NOMA). NOMA was instrumental in the city’s receipt of grant funding to construct the Miller Street sidewalks. In the near future, an additional phase of the Fit Community sidewalk project will offer the installation of sidewalks along Lake Drive, completing a 1.5 mile connector between NOMA and the Salisbury Greenway.” She explained that NOMA serves as a volunteer organization that meets monthly and works to complete neighborhood improvement projects, and (here is the best part):
“NOMA is dedicated to building a stronger, safer, and more vital Salisbury community for all.” Thanks, Janet!

City of Salisbury Landscape Division Manager Mark Martin was out there today to direct the crews and assist us in planting the trees. He gave a wonderful talk on proper tree care and planting. Mark explained that there are quite a few wonderful services the Salisbury Landscape Division can provide city residents. If you helped plant a tree today, you not only got to take home your gloves, but you got a free "Trees are Good" t-shirt or mug. Mark is also the Liaison to the Tree Board. If you would like more information the Salisbury Tree Board or the Landscape Division, please contact Mark at 704-638-5255. We may even have Mark speak at a NOMA meeting!

So take a drive down W Miller Street on your way to City Park, or for a pleasant cruise around the neighborhood. You'll see our brand new sidewalk and newly planted trees! Next spring, when these ornamental flowering crab apples are all a-bloom, You will also see what makes this neighborhood one of the very BEST in Salisbury ~ NOMA!

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.

Decorative Pedestrian Level Lighting on W Miller St

Hello Friends & Neighbors!

Here's an update on our potential new project! We got some pricing from the City on our proposed decorative lighting for Miller Street.

For those who did not attend the last neighborhood meeting, the Miller Street sidewalk project, taking the North Main neighborhood to the Parks, does not include any decorative pedestrian level lighting and we had SO hoped for this! They will be installing the conduit to provide for the lighting at a later date. It was suggested that perhaps getting the lighting is something our organization could do for ourselves. If we raised the funds, the City would purchase, install, and maintain the light fixtures. The lights are not cheap!! It looks like we might be looking at roughly $4,000.00 ~ $4,500.00 each! Ouch! And for Miller St alone we would need 6-8 per block or about 12 - 16 lights. This translates to about $80,000.00. That's a pretty ambitious fund raiser, but if the Fulton Heights neighborhood raised the funds for their Centennial Park on their own, perhaps its in our best interest to give it a try. Imagine how nice it would be to have this lighting down Miller Street to the Park! It might even set a precedent and the lighting could be continued on Jackson and up Lake Drive where the rest of the sidewalk project is planned! (By the way, we did the math for lighting that entire sidewalk project thinking we would get the Lake Dr residents involved and it comes out to be over $300,000!! - so just thought we'd concentrate on Miller St. for now!)

The City installed a recommended fixture on E. Council St. between Main and Long Streets so if you are out and about you can go by and see what they look like. They are also installed in the county-owned parking lot at Kerr and N. Main. The difference between regular street lights is that street lighting is much higher and intended to light the traffic way, not the sidewalks. The pedestrian level lighting is 12' high, spaced closer together, and usually far more attractive.

Our proposed Home & Garden Tour, Spring 2010, may be the perfect kick-off event for this. We can look into donations from other organizations too. If anyone is particularly talented at fund-raisers, grant-writing, or down-right begging - now is your chance to shine! Contact us here by commenting after this post, or email to oldnorthsalisbury@gmail.com.

You can also share your ideas and comments at the next Old North Salisbury Meeting, scheduled for Thursday August 27th at 7:00PM at 910 N. Main St. We hope to see you there!

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!