By Mark Wineka

Salisbury Post

A Public Art Committee will recommend going forward with a gateway installation on East Innes Street at the railroad bridge, but it will be missing a main component — the large, sculpted brick column in the median.

The public art project will continue to have brick columns on each side of the street.

Those columns will become taller than originally planned, and the sculpted images that were supposed to be part of the central column will be transferred to the side columns.

Because of space limitations on the side, some “wings” to the columns also will be eliminated.

The committee’s new recommendation will go to Salisbury City Council Jan. 16.

Barbara Perry, chairperson of both the Public Art Committee and Community Appearance Commission, shared the news with CAC members Wednesday afternoon.

The N.C. Department of Transportation had warned committee members and city officials that state-required safety features around the middle brick column could detract significantly from the art project’s appearance.

In the fall, DOT Division Engineer Pat Ivey informed the city about requirements related to curb height, speed limit, rigid guard rails and the need for a safety barrier in front of the central column that would feature a breakaway design.

Ivey questioned whether appropriate protection could be put in place without hurting the integrity of the whole art installation.

Ivey also emphasized that the rigid guard rail and breakaway barrier would be required for the state to meet established standards of safety or otherwise be open to lawsuits should a motorist be injured or killed after hitting the middle column.

City officials had considered challenging the DOT requirements. Ivey said any final proposal would have to be approved by the DOT in Raleigh.

“We could fight this for a long time and still not win,” Perry said Wednesday.

She said the Public Art Committee voted 14-2 to change the overall project and eliminate the middle column, which was going to be about 35 feet high.

“We discussed it long and hard and reluctantly agreed,” she said. “… It was with a heavy heart that we had to do this.”

But the committee didn’t want the public art project to languish and lose momentum, she said.

Perry and Senior Planner Lynn Raker met with the artist, William Culbertson of North Smithfield, R.I., for lunch in Salisbury earlier Wednesday to talk about the proposed changes.

It will lead to a lower overall cost, Perry said. The estimate for the original design approached $250,000, but elimination of the central column and the availability of bricks and facilities for brick sculpting at Taylor Clay Products should reduce the price tag.

Salisbury City Council had given its blessing to the original design.

It would be the first public art project connected to the Salisbury History and Art Trail. Some of the first historical markers for the trail already have been installed, including those for the Meroney Theater, the sister-city relationship with Salisbury, England, and Theo Buerbaum.

About 10 more markers are finished and waiting to be installed by the Salisbury Street Division.

The markers cover five different eras in Salisbury’s history, and the Public Art Committee will be working on them in phases, as funding becomes available.

In other business Wednesday, the Community Appearance Commission approved goals for 2007-2008 that will be presented to council Jan. 16.

Here are commission goals requiring funding:

* Continue the Municipal Service District Incentive Grant Program, $35,000.

* Continue the Innes Street Incentive Grant Program, $35,000.

* Host the biennial Community Appearance Commission-Tree Board Awards Program, $4,000.

* Continue promotion of spring and fall “Spruce-Up Days,” “Landscape of the Month” and “Adopt a Salisbury Street” programs, $1,600.

* Improve the appearance, comfort and maintenance of the downtown streetscape with a three-year, phased purchase and installation of more trash receptacles and benches, $5,000

* Refurbish or install wiring in downtown tree pits in the 100 blocks of East and West Innes and North and South Main streets.

* Produce more Salisbury History and Art Trail markers and associated educational material, $20,000.

* Add receptacles to medians on both sides of the East Innes Street railroad bridge, $2,500.

Under neighborhood goals, the CAC recommends the hiring of an additional code enforcement/abatement officer for the city.

It supports a citywide strategy to deal with deteriorating housing.

It will hold quarterly Neighborhood Leaders Alliance meetings and continue promotion of “pocket parks” in neighborhoods.

The CAC will continue to work with the Park Avenue, North Main Street, Jersey City and other neighborhood redevelopment efforts.

It will provide plantings for the Arlington Street median and continue to work with the Tree Board to plant neighborhood trees.

Contact Mark Wineka at 704-797-4263, or mwineka @salisburypost.com.