I swan, if you don’t read every Salisbury City Council agenda, after skipping over years of items that didn’t interest you, you’ll miss one that did.  I don’t know where signs were posted but, even though I’m in the area nearly every day, I didn’t see one. Unfortunately, I think this is too important to fall through the cracks.

On April 1, council considered a request to close a mishmash of alleys and roads in the vicinity of the former Newman Park baseball field. Most were trivial obsolete easements, but there were a few important ones lost in the jumble. Catawba College asked the city to close all of them, and the council did.

I’m writing to draw attention to the closing of a small street segment which is an actively used road.  It includes the 400 block of Summit Avenue, curving around to the 2100 (and only) block of King Street. Its ends are marked by the Summit/Yost intersection and the King/Lantz intersection. The curved section in the middle is slated to be closed. There was no mention of a traffic study.

On a lazy Sunday afternoon, there is nothing more than an occasional car and perhaps a neighbor walking their dog passing by. But when there is a high-attendance event nearby, this road can become as busy as a rush-hour expressway. This climaxes when the event ends, and all the attendees begin their exit at once. This street acts as a safety valve. It becomes a bypass of the clogged Lantz/Yost 4-way stop, disseminating traffic out in directions otherwise unreachable without going through the 4-way stop.

I suggest city council reconsider the closing of this inobtrusive but vitally important little street, and the increase in traffic congestion that eliminating it will leave behind. It’s in the public interest.

— Ann Brownlee
Salisbury