By Rebecca Rider

rebecca.rider@salisburypost.com

SALISBURY — The continuation of a recessed meeting for the Salisbury City Council ran for three hours Tuesday night as the council heard reports from more than a dozen committees, commissions and advisory boards.

The committees include an estimated total of 126 Salisbury residents and hundreds of hours of meetings and planning. Reports highlighted each committee’s work from the previous year and laid out its goals for 2017 and beyond.

The first two presenters, the Community Appearance Commission and the Housing Advocacy Commission, took up nearly a third of Monday’s meeting time as representatives discussed the city’s sculpture installations, the annual Blockworks project and vacant housing.

Housing Advocacy Commission representative and city code employee Mandy Edwards estimated that Salisbury currently has between 700 and 800 vacant or dilapidated houses. Edwards said the city code office has about 614 open or active cases, with more than 100 of those concerning housing. She asked that the city hire an additional code enforcement officer.

“It would enforce more proactive than reactive enforcement,” she said.

Edwards and the commission also requested an additional $50,000 to address repairs or demolition for substandard housing. The money would be used to demolish houses if needed or to repair doors, windows or other features to make houses appear less obviously vacant.

A boarded-up home can attract crime, she said, and may discourage people from moving into the neighborhood.

“People don’t feel safe,” commission member Barbara Perry said.

Council member Brian Miller asked if the $50,000 would be recurring or if it is a one-time request. Edwards said she would like to see what code enforcement could do with this amount and then tweak it as needed.

“Not recurring forever, but enough until we get our blight stabilized,” Mayor Pro Tem Maggie Blackwell suggested.

A bit of cosmetic work on a run-down house can have a positive effect, commission representatives said. During her presentation, Perry spoke highly of the city’s Blockworks project and its ability to stabilize a neighborhood for several years afterward.

Perry requested an additional $5,000 in funding in an effort to hold more than one Blockworks project a year.

“I think it is worth looking into whether it can be done or not,” she said.

Other reports included:

• The city Public Art Committee announced plans to install Salisbury’s ninth sculpture show March 31 and a plaque to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the Salisbury City Fire Department.
• The Public Art Committee will partner with the city to take over the West Fisher Street Mural. The city has agreed to find money to take care of past-due amounts.
• The Human Relations Council announced the 2017 Voices From the Margin production to be held March 30-April 1 at Lee Street theater. “Point Blank” will deal will issues of systematic racism.
• The Transportation Advisory Board will, at the end of the fiscal year, evaluate its recent expanded and express routes in partnership with Livingstone College. The board’s Last Mile transfer program for ticketed train passengers begins today.
• The Tourism and Cultural Development Commission is projecting an increase in hotel market revenue, of which the city receives about $837,500 a year. The spike is predicted because of the opening of the new Holiday Inn Express. Miller briefly discussed local branding efforts with commission representatives before making a comment:

“Some of the discussions we’re having in the public discourse right now are actually damaging our efforts to brand ourselves,” he said. “We need to be more intentional as a community to make sure that we’re not out there screaming and yelling at one another because it’s actually damaging our efforts to promote our community.”

• The Parks and Recreation Advisory Board laid out plans to improve the city graffiti park, select a final site for an anticipated dog park, engineering and planning the newest section of the greenway, and the development of a teen activity room at the City Park recreation center.
• The Greenway Committee discussed plans to connect the Kelsey Scott portion of the Greenway to Grant’s Creek and to begin an extension from Old Wilkesboro Road to Jake Alexander Boulevard.
• The Planning Board discussed two studies it plans to conduct — one of the Faith Road corridor and one of the West Innes Street corridor. Both studies should be complete by 2018.

After the presentations, council members praised the work of committee members and the progress the city is making in a number of areas.

“Everything here was something that lifts our city up,” council member David Post said.

Mayor Karen Alexander thanked the committee members for their work and their ability to engage the community.

“It’s that passion that I see that fuels me to want to continue to serve our city,” she said.

Contact reporter Rebecca Rider at 704-797-4264.