New Business, Community Center Almost Ready

BY MARK WINEKA
SALISBURY POST

Construction is nearing completion at the Salisbury West Business and Community Center on Bank Street, near the city's Hall Gym and the Miller Recreation Center.

Besides a community center for the West End neighborhood, the $425,000 city project will house an incubator program to provide office space for businesses owned by women and minorities.

The incubator allows businesses to share in equipment such as copy and fax machines and charges only half ($7.50 a square foot) the regular rent for tenants.

Businesses will be allowed to operate on a two- to three-year basis, giving them time to become established and move on.

Salisbury Neighborhood Manager John Brooks will move his office to the new center. City officials also hope to house the Rowan-Iredell Credit Union and the New Horizons Community Development Corp.

City Manager David Treme said the city will allow the community development organization to stay in the center free for a year and then pay full rent after that.

In another city matter this week, council has delayed making 27 zoning text amendments, fearing that the public wasn't adequately aware that the changes were proposed. The city advertised the public hearing in the newspaper, summarizing the changes, which were generally described as a cleaning up of the ordinance.

Planners told council that eight of the amendments probably merited closer inspection. One added 84 new definitions to the ordinance. Others included changing the parking space requirement for furniture stores, allowing mobile home storage units only in heavy-industrial districts, keeping confiscated political signs until after the election and changing the notification period for rezoning advertisements to save on newspaper charges.

Council held a public hearing on the amendments Tuesday, but no one showed up to comment. Councilman Pete Kennedy pushed for tabling the amendments to generate more interest when they're considered again.

Several council members said they also wanted to address the political sign question more directly.

In other business, council:

- Received an annual study of Time Warner cable's rates, judged acceptable under Federal Communication Commission guidelines. Sandra Montgomery of the Centralina Council of Governments conducted the study. The 1999 rate for the company's 12-channel basic tier has decreased from $6.90 to $6.54 a month, because the company had overestimated the inflation rate last year.

The 35-channel service tier in 1999 costs $23.25, up $1.75 from 1998. Federal rate regulation of this tier will end March 31, meaning the free market will then determine what Time Warner charges for this tier of service. Also, no franchising authority, such as Salisbury, will be able to review complaints filed by subscribers on the service tier rate.

- Designated the Park Avenue neighborhood as an economic and community development project area, which helps the neighborhood qualify for redevelopment tax credits and apply for grants.

- Moved to condemn a piece of property owned by John Thomen. City officials say they need an easement to allow construction of the new Town Creek sewer main. Through condemnation, the courts will decide an equitable price for Thomen's land. City Manager David Treme said Thomen wanted $25,000, while the city had it appraised at $10,000.

- Added Rowan County Commissioner Steve Blount to the Salisbury 2020 Vision Committee. est