SALISBURY — The city of Salisbury took the time on Tuesday to celebrate the members of the public works department for being named Main Street Champions by the N.C. Main Street organization.

“They are the backbone of the city. They are the unsung heroes, and we should take this opportunity to recognize them. I think it’s amazing that the North Carolina Main Street organization recognized them for the great job they do. They keep our downtown clean, they help all of our businesses,” said Mayor Tamara Sheffield.

The department was nominated for their “amazing work keeping downtown clean and safe,” wrote Downtown Salisbury Director Sada Stewart Troutman. On Tuesday, DSI hosted an ice cream social celebrating the department and the people that comprise it.

Oftentimes, the public works department can be the unseen force behind many of the downtown events and improvements made around town. However, on Tuesday, those people were on center stage.

“The way I think of it is, when somebody calls and complains about something going on in the city or they call and compliment the city, 90 percent of those calls are about something public works did. If a truck runs into someone’s yard, if somebody cleans something up, if a tree falls, if you go to the Cheerwine Festival and an hour after it closes it’s like it wasn’t even there, that’s these guys,” said Council Member David Post.

Grounds Maintenance Operations Manager Brad Gorman, who heads many of the department’s responsibilities that lead to the award, provided a snapshot of what an event day looks like for public works.

“All the DSI events in downtown we provide trash cans for and we clean up for, and of course Cheerwine is the biggest one. We had 40 tons (of trash) one year for Cheerwine alone, and that was one day where we picked up 40 tons of loose trash, because we had to take it to the landfill,” said Gorman.

Gorman added that it was good for the employees to have a day dedicated to celebrating their importance, as oftentimes the staff can think all of their work is “going unseen and nobody appreciates it.”

“We know that they’re heroes and they always have been, but it’s nice to have them recognized by a state organization and let everybody in the state of North Carolina know how great they are,” said Council Member Susan Kluttz.

Several members of the city’s leadership also pointed to Public Works Director Chris Tester’s leadership as one of the main reasons that the department was being recognized as one of the top in the state.

“He has done a great job in leading and setting directions and creating almost a family environment for these folks, he’s really created a great team,” said Sheffield.

The public works department was not the only Salisbury-based organization to be recognized at the N.C. Main Street Conference, as The Greene Family Development Company received the Best Adaptive Reuse Project for their redevelopment of the Bell Block Building. 

The company, headed by Bill and Cora Greene, received the award along with architect Pete Bogle and general contractor Al Wilson for their work in restoring and revitalizing the three-story Richardsonian-Romanesque building from 1898.

The renovation took over two years, with the planning and imagination process taking over ten years before that, and turned the space over the Thread Shed that had been empty above the for over a century into a historically-faithful apartment building.