By Mark Wineka
mark.wineka@salisburypost.com

GRANITE QUARRY — Town officials met recently with representatives of Food Lion and learned the company is not interested in having a store in Granite Quarry at present.

The Board of Aldermen has made it a priority to lure a grocery store back to Granite Quarry, which hasn’t had one since Winn-Dixie’s departure several years ago.

Food Lion already has stores in Rockwell and on the eastern end of Salisbury at the Innes Street Market, and the company didn’t want to “cannibalize” those existing locations by putting a new store in Granite Quarry, Mayor Bill Feather said.

Feather added the town probably expected that reasoning from Food Lion, but he characterized the company’s discussions and input as “very positive.”

Meanwhile, as far as retail development goes, including efforts at attracting a grocery store, Town Manager Justin Price said the town will keep looking at the possibilities for new and infill development.

At their retreat this past winter, aldermen also put a high priority on eliminating the confusion between Salisbury and Granite Quarry addresses. Most properties in Granite Quarry have a Salisbury mailing address because mail is delivered to homes and businesses out of the Salisbury post office.

Price reported town officials met with regional U.S. Postal Service officials, “and we await a response regarding the use of ‘Granite Quarry’ for street delivery,” he said.

In another matter, Granite Quarry aldermen have accepted a $49,000 offer for about 6.5 acres, commonly known as the old treatment plant site. Lonnie and Donna Goodman of 802 N. Main St. have made the offer, and the town has advertised for upset bids.

If none come in, the bidding will close on June 7. The Goodmans live next to the property in question, which is a permitted site for the limbs and brush collected by the town. It’s also where Granite Quarry has stored many surplus vehicles, equipment and materials no longer used by the town.

An inventory was made of those things, and aldermen agreed Monday to post 43 surplus items on the online site GovDeals.

In other business, aldermen approved a proposal from Salisbury-Rowan Utilities on how to spend the $50,000 municipal customers are offered annually from SRU for capital projects.

Because the current fiscal year is winding down and will end June 30, aldermen wanted to earmark how those funds should be spent, rather than lose the $50,000.

“There is simply not enough time to design, permit and construct a waterline extension of any size before the end of the fiscal year,” SRU Engineering Manager Jason Wilson said in a letter to the board.

Mike West, representing SRU at Monday’s meeting, described how the best approach would be to purchase materials such as pipe, fittings, valves and more that could be used for both a Lake Drive/Lyerly Street extension project and the extension of a waterline from the Gildan site.

All the materials for the Lake Drive/Lyerly Street waterline extension could be purchased for $32,000, West estimated. The remaining $18,000 could be used to stockpile 12-inch pipe for the Gildan project.

After aldermen approved that approach, West said, “I’ll prepare the purchase order tomorrow morning.”

Aldermen also spent a long time in closed session Monday night to discuss personnel issues. When they came back into open session, they reported no action had been taken, but they recessed Monday night’s meeting and agreed to reconvene at 4 p.m. today to continue the personnel talks.

Aldermen set June 25 as a public hearing date on the town’s proposed 2015-16 budget, which calls for the current property tax rate of 42 cents per $100 valuation to stay the same. The public hearing will be held at 6 p.m. June 25 at Town Hall.

Contact Mark Wineka at 704-797-4263.