Tuesday, May 18, 2010

HNA May Meeting Minutes

Attendees: Sue McHugh (North Main), Julie Upp (North Main), Debbie Lesley (Ellis Street), Andrew Pitner (Fulton Heights), Jack Thomson (HSF), Betty Carli (West Square), Rebecca Hyde (North Main), Garth Birdsey (Park Avenue), Edward Clement (West Square) and Christine Wilson (Fulton Heights).


Neighborhood Reports: concise update from each neighborhood. There were 5 neighborhoods represented at this meeting.

· North Main Street (NMSHD): Sue McHugh introduced Julie Upp who is a new resident of the North Main neighborhood. She also told about the Arbor Day celebration on Miller Street. Several neighbors participated in the first Fork & Cork event. This is a progressive snack and drink event. Koco Java is staying open late to host their neighborhood association meetings. They are planning a group event for Pops at the Post on June 5th. They are considering a ‘revisit’ to their neighborhood watch program. Mark Martin (arborist with the City) will attend an upcoming neighborhood meeting.

· Fulton Heights (FHHD): Andrew Pitner gave a review of the Buy History open house event. Christine mentioned that the FH board is discussing options for the neighborhood listserv communication tool that is no longer working. Several other neighborhoods said they would be interested in learning more about the next tool FH chooses to use.

· West Square (WSHD): Betty Carli said their neighborhood has launched a lawn of distinction program. Janet and Keith Gapen are the first recipients. Their community watch program is working very well. Officer Anne recently told their board that West Square has the lowest crime rate in the City of Salisbury right now. They have 5 neighborhood parties planned for the rest of 2010. The July 4th party hopes to block a portion of Fulton Street for a parade. They are having another garage sale to raise funds.

· North Ellis Graded School (NEGSHD): Debbie Lesley said the neighborhood is planning a social event for June. She told about the Plein Air Carolina group that set up at Shober Bridge and painted lovely images of the bridge. Some of them can be viewed at www.pleinaircarolina.com. The group discussed how nice it would be to have some of the paintings displayed in town (possibly Tastebuds). Debbie will check with Phyllis Steimel.

· Park Avenue Historic District (PAHD): Garth Birdsey said they are working with Chris Branham (Code Enforcement). He is spending some time to identify problems in the neighborhood. Chris gave them a spreadsheet with problems he identified. The neighborhood has had a problem with final clean-up of the mill site. Some progress is being made and there is now a fence around the property. They do not have an organized neighborhood watch but are calling the police when they see problems. The VITA tax assistance was a good success. Garth has set up a Facebook page called Historic Salisbury, NC. He wants people to join and add photos or links to things of interest in Salisbury. He found it hard to find info about Salisbury all in one place.

Historic Salisbury Foundation updates: Jack Thomson

· HSF is organizing a formal presentation to City Council for June 15 to discuss Shober Bridge. This meeting has a public comment at the end of the meeting. Neighborhoods should send notice to their residents asking them to attend this meeting as a show of support – we’re looking to PACK THE ROOM- and looking for volunteers to step forward and speak at the end of the meeting about rehabilitating the bridge.

· He explained that HSF will have a number of speakers who will each articulate a particular point of view on the rehabilitation of the bridge. The planned speakers are as follows

§ Introduction: Charles Floyd – Real Estate expert

§ David Fishetti – Engineer

§ A City Planner – New Urbanism

§ Traffic Engineer –

§ Lawyer – to discuss legal challenges

§ Wrap-up: Sue McHugh – Salisbury citizen and community leader

· Jack is also working with Charles Floyd and Pat Ivey (NC DOT) to identify the needs for rehabbing the bridge and what is sufficient to meet the need.

Preservation Plan:

· The City applied for and received a grant to do a preservation plan for the City. They were granted $15K that requires a match from the City of $8K for a total of $23K in funds.

· HNA needs to show that the city that they heard the requests of the historic neighborhoods and approve of what they did.

· It is vital to inject the neighborhoods NOW into this plan. HNA is the conduit to the neighborhoods.

· The board voted to write a letter to the Mayor and send copies of this to the city council. Sue McHugh as president and Andrew Pitner will send a letter of support for the plan and the funding and ask to be involved in every aspect of the preservation plan from the beginning to the end.

· A suggestion was made for HNA to send a letter to all the possible consultants in the state who could possibly help with this type of plan. Doing so before the city will show HNA plans to be involved.

· Christine will check the Charleston Plan and see who made up the committees that worked on developing the plan.

· The process used to develop the plan is vital.

Housing Commission update: Garth Birdsey

· The city is going to develop a housing commission and they are looking for people to apply for seats on the commission. An application can be found here http://www.ci.salisbury.nc.us/council/Boards_Commissions.htm

· The original group that is formed will evaluate all aspects of a housing commission. This is expected to take one year. The city hopes to have volunteers for the commission by July 1st.



Updates: Christine Wilson

Our IRS application for non-profit status is almost ready to be mailed.


Next meeting date, time, and location


· June 9 12, 2010 at Garth and Belinda Birdsey’s house 429 Park Avenue


· Please RSVP to Christine at hnaoffice@bellsouth.net


· Meetings are held the 2nd Wednesday of every month at 5:15

1 comment:

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