By Mark Wineka
mark.wineka@salisburypost.com

SALISBURY — Tuesday’s Salisbury City Council meeting will allow time for public comment, so it might give people shut out from commenting about Salisbury’s Confederate monument July 7 a chance to voice their concerns.

Close to 20 people, many wearing black T-shirts and carrying signs that said “#TimeToTalk” and “No Fear/No Fame” attended council’s meeting July 7, but that first meeting of the month did not include a designated time for public comment.

Council routinely places a time for public comment in its second meeting of a month.

Outside the meeting July 7, some of the people who attended said they would like to see City Council facilitate a community discussion on the “Gloria Victus” Confederate monument, often referred to as “Fame.” The 106-year-old monument is located in the median at Innes and Church streets.

Symbols of the Confederacy such as flags and monuments have become subjects of debate across the South, especially since the racially motivated killings of nine African-Americans in Charleston June 17, 2015. The suspect in the case, Dylann Roof, has been pictured wearing or displaying Confederate symbols.

Council will meet at 4 p.m. Tuesday at City Hall, 217 S. Main St. Council meetings are streamed live at www.salisburync.gov/webcast.

In other business Tuesday. council:

• Will receive an update on code enforcement. For more than a year, the Housing Advocacy Committee has been drafting a new ordinance targeting abandoned properties, but Planning Director Janet Gapen might recommend postponing the committee’s recommendations until a new code enforcement division manager is hired.

• Will consider awarding a $129,782 contract to Little Mountain Builders of Catawba County Inc. to install sidewalk on Jake Alexander Boulevard between Castlewood Drive and Brenner Avenue. Little Mountain Builders was the low bidder.

• Will hold a public hearing and consider adopting a resolution to close a portion of Hall Street.

• Will hold a public hearing and consider amending several chapters of the Land Development Ordinance related to child day care uses in the city. The planning staff is making the recommendations so the city’s LDO is consistent with state licensure requirements.

• Will hold a public hearing and consider rezoning a 1.3-acre lot on Jake Alexander Boulevard just east of its intersection with Faith Road. The present zoning is general residential. The requested zoning is corridor mixed-use.

Contact Mark Wineka at 704-797-4263.