Two-day planning retreat looks at upcoming year for Salisbury

Published 12:10 am Saturday, February 1, 2025

SALISBURY — The planning retreat for the Salisbury City Council lasted two full days, and for approximately 14 hours a multitude of issues, updates and ideas for the future of the city were discussed.

The two-day meeting was facilitated by Jeff Emory from the N.C. Department of Commerce and covered topics ranging from adding bathrooms to parks around the city to updates on building projects to streamlining the land and development department’s permitting process.

City officials did state that their recommendation was for the city to continue with its current strategic plan, which was approved last year, and focuses the city on six issues, including healthy, safe and engaging neighborhoods; public safety; economic and workforce development; organizational excellence; sustainable infrastructure; and cultural amenities.

Several of the more noteworthy items that were discussed at the planning retreat:

Multigenerational center and downtown events center

The city council members received updates on several building projects for the Parks and Recreation Department, which included both the renovation of the former Wells Fargo building on Main Street as well as the creation of a multigenerational recreation center at Town Creek Park on East Monroe Street.

The process for renovating the former Wells Fargo building into an events center is underway after the city council approved a $300,000 design contract with the local Bogle Firm in August for the redesign. 

The main floor would be used as a multi-function event center, set up for leased events of various sizes with the potential that it could be split and leased to multiple groups at one time. There would also be breakout areas or areas for smaller groups, a catering kitchen and storage for event equipment.

The second floor would be utilized for the parks and recreation offices, potentially providing room for department growth in the future. Bogle Firm also provided the option for the city to include rental office space on the second floor.

The second project that the council received updates on was the possible construction of a multigenerational recreation center, which would be a two-floor facility with room for Rufty-Holmes Senior Center programming on one floor and youth programming on the other.

Danielle Scesney, the project manager for CPL Architecture handling the project, said that the project is still in the planning phase. Currently, the team is working to create a conceptual design based on comments received from citizens at various city events. The next step will be taking that plan, coming up with a cost estimate for the project along with upkeep and revenue estimates and then taking all of that information back into the public for more comment.

The plan for the project would combine Rufty-Holmes, the Fred M. Evans Pool, the Salisbury Civic Center and the existing Town Creek Park into one facility, said Scesney.

The multigenerational facility is still in the early phases, and several of the city council members expressed concerns and questions.

“We know that Rufty-Holmes needs more space and we know that the city needs a civic center and we know that (currently) neither works long term for either one. Our existing civic center doesn’t work for the city and Rufty-Holmes’ doesn’t work for Rufty-Holmes and so we’re looking at a public-private partnership without understanding what the other options are, and that’s really hard to do,” said Council Member David Post.

City Manager Jim Greene Jr. said the project was based on previous directions from the city council and that the reason things looked different at this point was due to constraints, whether they were space-related, cost-related or simply evolved through conversations with Rufty-Holmes and the public.

During the parks update, the council also looked at bathroom possibilities for City Park and Kelsey Scott Park. City Council Member Carlton Jackson Jr. said the improvement of Kelsey Scott Park in particular was personal for him.

“I remember, if we were going to have a family event there, that my father and me would go down there early and take his lawnmower and cut the grass because the park was not maintained. I remember, the bathrooms weren’t clean, they weren’t really accessible, they were so far away from where the picnic tables, so this is kind of personal to me,” said Jackson, adding that he believed improving Kelsey Scott Park would help build more equity in the community.

Concern about federal funding cuts after now-rescinded funding freeze

As part of the conversation surrounding the grant funding that the city receives and utilizes, several members of the city’s administration and council expressed concern about recent policy changes being pursued by the newly-elected White House.

“With the change in administrations in Washington, we have federal money coming in for current operations and we have federal money that we might be counting on in the future. We’ve got a government that brings in over $7 trillion a year and wants to cut $2 trillion out of that. I’m on some boards that are really shaking in their boots, so do we have any gut feel for what the impact the administration (changes) could have on us?” asked Post.

President Donald Trump’s administration issued a memo on Monday advising federal grant programs to pause payments, an order which was rescinded after a judge temporarily blocked the freeze. However, White House officials have continued to voice their desire to cut down on federal spending.

Some of the main projects affected by the freeze, which was still in effect during the discussion, were the Yadkin River water pump station, the city’s microtransit program and the downtown streetscape program.

“A lot of the projects that you all prioritize, whether it’s the downtown streetscape or the (multimodal) depot or a lot of the sidewalk projects that you’ve heard talked about in the strategic plan updates, are federally funded with state and federal funding. We’re just unsure what the impact will be so we continue to get work and get updates,” said Greene.

Assistant City Manager Kelly Baker said that the Salisbury Transit Department receives most of its funding from state and federal grants, meaning that it may be disproportionately affected by any changes.

As of now, the memo has been rescinded by the White House with no actual changes to federal grant funding. However, the Trump administration has publicly stated that the memo was an indication of their desire to cut down on federal spending.

Finance Director Wade Furches said in a phone call on Friday that city staff understand that Trump could revisit the issue at any point, and so they were working to stay updated.

“The president could decide, at any time, instead of doing a blanket freeze on all grants, go directly to one department and freeze all of that. Of course, we hope that doesn’t happen, but it’s just uncertain times and we’re going day-to-day and doing the best we can,” said Furches.

City looking into moving recycling services in house

The members of the city council gave public works and administration staff their approval to being looking at moving recycling services in house for the upcoming budget year.

The public works department provided their recommendations to the city council as to how to implement the project, which included keeping recycling fees the same for now, entering a one-year recycling contract with Republic Services beginning July 2025 while also preparing to bring it in house during the 2025-2026 fiscal year, bringing in two new staff members for recycling and going live with their own services in July of 2026.

Public Works Director Chris Tester noted that the up-front costs for the change would be significant at a projected $1.7 million, but that by the end of year three the city would have broken even due to the savings.

“If we continue to outsource this we would see rising costs for us, for our costumers. (The) Opportunities here to bring it in house and (have) more control, better customer service, opportunities to educate and hopefully stabilize that cost for us and for our customers,” said Greene.

Tester said that he was bringing the idea before the city council because the department staff hated to keep bringing fee increase requests in front of the council because other companies and services that they were contracted with also increased.

“We’re trying to look at minimizing those increases and preparing the program for future sustainability,” said Tester.

The city council spent time on plenty of other issues throughout the two meetings, including a look back at the 2024 year, looking at where the city currently stands on its capital improvement plans, and looking at the current permitting and development process for the Land and Development Department and considering possibilities for streamlining it.

The recordings of the planning retreat can be found on the WSRG TV Youtube page, located at https://www.youtube.com/@WSRGTV.