By Natalie Anderson
natalie.anderson@salisburypost.com

SALISBURY — Following completion of the Bell Tower Green Park project this summer, the city will spend up to a month repaving blocks of South Church, West Fisher and South Jackson streets.

In addition to its $700,000 purchase of the park in November, Mayor Karen Alexander told the Post the city dedicated $125,000 in the general fund to the park project. A total of $75,000 will be used from the current fiscal year budget to complete the repaving. The remaining $50,000 will come from the 2021-22 fiscal year budget and sit in the general fund for any future needs. The city will receive a $350,000 reimbursement for its purchase of the park from a Parks and Recreation Trust Fund grant received in 2018.

The repaving project’s bid cost is $75,880, and the city’s Public Works Department will oversee the project. Assistant Public Works Director Chris Tester said the project entails milling, or grinding and removing, 1.5 inches of existing asphalt on the 100 blocks of South Church and South Jackson streets and the 200 block of West Fisher Street, which all surround the park. Those streets will be then be filled and resurfaced with 1.5 inches of new asphalt.

Tester said the project will be conducted following the completion of the park, which is slated for the middle of June at this time, to keep heavy construction traffic off the new asphalt.

“The new asphalt surface will offer a good finished product to the redevelopment of this city block,” Tester said.

Alexander told the Post she anticipates the project will take anywhere from two weeks to a month, depending on weather and temporary road closures.

Contact reporter Natalie Anderson at 704-797-4246.