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February 2004
23
Council Concentrates on Housing, Improving City Salaries
BY MARK WINEKA
SALISBURY POST
February 23, 2004
Praise for the Salisbury Community Development Corp. sounds like critical
acclaim for a smash movie.
"A dream-maker."
"A success machine."
"The whole thing works outstandingly well."
Those reviews came from Salisbury City Council's two-day retreat last week in
which council members set their annual goals.
A new goal for the Community Development Corp. -- a tool the city has been
using to provide affordable housing in targeted neighborhoods -- will be to
concentrate its efforts in the West End community surrounding Livingstone
College.
"We think we can ratchet this up to another level," said City Manager David
Treme, a member of the nonprofit agency's board.
Chestnut Hill and North Main Street areas also could be of interest. Council
members said they would like to establish some criteria for deciding what
neighborhoods to help.
In recent years, the Community Development Corp. has constructed at least a
dozen new homes and rehabilitated others in the Park Avenue and Jersey City
areas.
It now has identified at least 18 vacant houses in the West End community
that need attention and already owns eight lots in that area.
Through community partnerships, especially with local banks, the Community
Development Corp. has succeeded in gearing its homebuyer education program and
down payment assistance options to first-time home buyers.
In Jersey City, a long-established Salisbury neighborhood between the
Mocksville Avenue medical district and the railroad tracks to the south, the
agency has built eight new homes that were sold to first-time buyers, who went
through a 26-hour, three-month education course.
Another new home is under construction in Jersey City. The Community
Development Corp. bought, renovated and sold another house to a first-time
homebuyer. A third renovated home was owner-occupied.
Mayor Susan Kluttz, also a member of the agency's board, said the housing
effort also reduces crime, increases the city's tax base and takes advantage of
city services already in place.
"The people keep coming in as partners," Kluttz added. "It's amazing the
partnerships and the contributions made that bring down the costs."
Ribbon-cuttings on the new houses are the best jobs she has as mayor, Kluttz
said.
Architect Karen Alexander volunteers her time to design the Community
Development Corp. homes and make their styles fit the neighborhoods. All the new
houses in Jersey City have received Internet connections, personal computers and
computer work stations.
Some of the financial assistance offered through community partnerships are
30-year loans of up to $20,000 at no interest, but agency Executive Director
Chanaka Yatawara said the program's key element is qualifying the home buyers, a
process that sometimes takes two years.
Councilman William "Pete' Kennedy, a Realtor, said the educational component
to the housing program is important. He has seen many unprepared homeowners lose
their houses.
Four of the first-time home buyers have been city employees -- a police
officer, parks and recreation employee and two utility maintenance workers.
The Community Development Corp. has had another success story. Lou Adkins,
the agency's community development coordinator, has helped the United Way by
providing credit counseling for displaced workers, especially since the
Pillowtex closing last July. She has spoken on behalf of these United Way
clients to mortgage lenders across the country, trying to work out deferred
payments until the workers find new jobs.
Yatawara said Adkins has probably saved more than 30 homes from going into
foreclosure.
Councilman Bill Burgin, an architect, said Yatawara has the dream job for
what it does in helping people and the community.
"If I could have a do-over of a career," Burgin said, "I would want this
man's job."
Other goals
While much of the retreat's other discussions focused on improving the city's
business climate, council members set goals that touch most city departments.
Treme will recommend, for example, budget allocations for a new fire station
on U.S. 70 and improved city employee salary ranges.
No price tags have been assigned yet to the fire station and the employees
the city will need to staff it.
Making city employee salaries immediately more competitive would take at
least $1 million, according to Human Resources Director Melissa Taylor.
Treme will have specific numbers assigned to these goals this spring in
anticipation of the 2004-2005 budget.
Here's a rundown of some of the other goals:
Treme will ask funding for a new five-year strategic plan for the Salisbury
Police Department.
The city will draft a false alarm ordinance, which could result in fines of
property owners whose unwarranted alarm activations prove bothersome to fire and
police.
"A tremendous amount of calls are false alarms," Treme said, adding it's not
good when the fire and police departments' biggest customers are false alarms.
An ordinance probably would notify owners of a problem and give them time to
correct it before facing penalties.
The city will build portions of a retaining wall at the Oakdale-Union Hill
Cemetery off Brenner Avenue.
The Salisbury-Rowan Utilities Department will start work in providing
water-sewer service to the newly annexed U.S. 70 area at a price tag of $4
million. The work has to be completed by the summer of 2005.
The Parks and Recreation Department, using $75,000 in grant money, will build
a half-mile trail from a Salisbury Community Park parking lot to the lake. It's
scheduled to be completed in May. The department also will work in developing a
lake picnic area.
Kelsey-Scott Park will get an additional large shelter.
The Crescent subdivision and Brenner Avenue phases of the Salisbury Greenway
will be built this year, and the design is under way for a section between the
Crescent greenway and the Hefner VAMedical Center.
Engineers are planning an East Innes Street "streetscape" plan for lighting
and landscaping enhancements that will be coordinated with Department of
Transportation road projects. Some $300,000 in private donations and grants have
been contributed toward the streetscape.
The council wants to meet with the Rowan County Board of Commissioners to
discuss topics such as one-stop city-county permitting, 911 dispatching,
promoting a better business climate, parking lot issues, a downtown convention
center, a possible fairgrounds relocation, cable television and more.
"I think we could come up with an agenda," Treme said.
Council members said city-county interaction is good, and a lot of things are
accomplished quietly between the city and county offices that are never
publicized. When the local governments have a disagreement, it's "very public,
very front page," Councilman Mark Lewis said.
"I feel we are working better together," Kluttz added. "Maybe it takes us
being together more often."
Treme said some matters of common interest are being taken care of by
telephone now that previously required a treaty.
The city expects to provide handicapped parking spaces in each downtown block
by this summer after the Department of Transportation repaves North and South
Main streets.
Dan Mikkelson,director of land management and development, said the Americans
with Disabilities Act has guidelines, not a law, relating to handicapped parking
spaces on public streets, and the city will follow those guidelines when it
repaints the streets after the resurfacing.
The milling and resurfacing of Main Street will take at least two weeks. The
state plans to limit its work to Sundays in the downtown area, Mikkelson said.
Burgin told fellow council members to be prepared over the next year or so
for major changes -- including a rezoning of the whole city -- that are part of
a complete rewrite of the city's development codes. The Land Development
Ordinance Committee already has had two meetings on code revision, and three
public workshops are scheduled as part of the committee's timetable.
Lewis said educating the public will be an important component to the
committee's work.
Contact Mark Wineka at 704-797-4263, or
mwineka@salisburypost.com.
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