By Mark Wineka
Salisbury Post
Salisburys dream of creating a South Square entertainment district took a big step toward reality this week with news that the state has approved additional funding for street improvements.
The Supplemental Funding Committee of the N.C. Department of Transportation OKd the citys application for an additional $117,583.
The citys 20 percent match of $29,396 will bring the total extra funds for the major streetscape improvements to $146,979 the sum needed to restore the original brick street in the 100 block of East Fisher Street and do the entire project as first envisioned.
Before the city sought the additional funding, it already had $484,480 in federal and local money available. The federal money came from a Safe, Accountable, Flexible and Efficient Transportation Equity Act (SAFETEA) grant, with a city match of $96,896.
Earlier this year, Summit Developers submitted a base bid of $351,540. The city planned to purchase lighting and trash receptacles for $85,200. Fees for design and utility services added an extra $21,475, bringing the total for the project to $458,216.
But the cost didnt include $173,243 for brick restoration on East Fisher Street, prompting the request for additional funding. Layers of asphalt cover the original brick street in the 100 block.
Joe Morris, planning and community development manager, credited Senior Planner Lynn Raker and Summit Developers owner Clay Lindsay with working to see that the total project could be realized.
Officials hope the streetscape improvements will help create more of a destination point for bars, restaurants and theater productions already in this area.
The construction will touch the 100 block of East Fisher and portions of the 100 block of South Lee Street and the 200 block of East Fisher Street.
Key elements of the project include exposing and restoring the original brick street surface on East Fisher Street, creating a small parking plaza of 14 spaces at the corner of South Lee and East Fisher streets, widening the sidewalk by 2.5 feet on the north side of East Fisher Street (100 block), installing brick sidewalks and crosswalks, installing decorative lighting, retaining granite curbs, replacing driveways, planting street trees and providing for removable bollards at each end of the 100 block of East Fisher Street, so it could be closed for special events.
Also, two-way traffic would be established in the 100 block of East Fisher Street. It is currently one-way.
Raker said construction is scheduled to start June 1 under a 90-day contract.
Replacement radios
In another city matter, Telecommunications Manager Terry Buff and John Enright, a consultant with Computer Science Corp., updated council this week on the future rebanding of the citys 800 radio trunking system.
Over the past several years, public safety and other high-site radio systems in the country, such as those used by Salisbury Police and Fire, have been experiencing equipment interference problems and dead zones because of technically incompatible low-site commercial wireless systems operating in the same or adjacent spectrum bands.
As part of a 2004 Federal Communications Commission order, Sprint Nextel is paying for reshuffling 800 megahertz bandwidths across the country. Salisbury holds one of 30 licenses affected in the state.
A Planning Funding Agreement is now under way with Sprint Nextel. It could be finished in June, to be followed by a Frequency Reconfiguration Agreement, with the actual reconfiguration beginning in January 2008.
Sprint Nextel will pay all reasonable and prudent expenses directly related to retuning of an 800MHz system, and relocated licensees (such as Salisbury) will received comparable facilities when they reconfigure, according to a city budget message.
The city of Salisbury and Rowan County have 2,400 radios on the system, and 750 of those radios will have to be replaced 250 in the city and 500 in the county.
Police, fire, utility and public service departments use the city radios, for example.
Again, Sprint Nextel is required only to replace the radios with comparable facilities nothing better than what the city had before.
But Buff and Enright said the city and county should use this opportunity to upgrade their radios to full-feature and digital capabilities. The system is currently in a mixed mode of analog and digital.
The cost of each replacement radio is $3,500, so Sprint Nextel is obligated to pay $875,000 to replace 250 city radios.
The cost of an upgrade to full-feature and digital capabilities is $500 more per radio, meaning the city could have state-of-the-art radios for an additional $125,000.
City Manager David Treme said, in effect, the rebanding is an opportunity in which Sprint Nextel will be significantly supporting the citys capital replacement fund and moving the system from analog to digital.
Treme said the city anticipated this was going to be coming about, and it was a reason it had not replaced a lot of its equipment.
The city has 20 channels on the 800 band that serve the entire county.
Contact Mark Wineka at 704-797-4263, or mwineka@salisburypost.com.