Neighborhood Improvement Advisory Council

Neighborhood Improvement Advisory Council Meeting Minutes Wednesday, February 13, 2019 7:00 P.M. City Hall Annex, 98 Washington Street Called to Order: 7:02 p.m. Members Present: Jodie Salasny & Barbara Mank (DNA), Wendy Meigs & Mira Riggin (HDSNA), Flora Tonthat (BSNNA), Andy Lyle & Laura Alberti (WNA), Pat Liberti (GHNA), Meg Riccardi (NSNFNA), Christy Evans (MPNA), Dennis Colbert (BCWNA) Staff Present: Dominick Pangallo (Office of Mayor Driscoll) Approval of January 9, 2019 Meeting minutes: Approved Neighborhood Association Updates: • Willows: Last meeting cancelled due to snow. Still working on the sand clean-up issue. Priorities remain the Columbus Avenue seawall and Fort Lee. Met with City officials on the Willows parking area plan and generally happy with how it looks, want to make sure maintenance and policing are included in the plan; unclear when it will be constructed at this point. • Gallows Hill: Open house on the Jefferson Properties housing development, takes place at Salem High School, February 25, 5:30pm. • Barnes/Clark/Wyman: Also monitoring the Jefferson Properties proposal, concerns about traffic levels and lack of left turn onto Highland Avenue. Woodlands subdivision has finished blasting, starting on home construction phase. • Historic Derby Street: Monitoring the Salem Harbor Port Authority and pier process. Working with National Park Service on plans for improvements around the Derby Wharf/Derby Street area. Hoping the Friendship will be back in port for July 4th this year. • Downtown: January meeting featured an update on Salem real estate trends. Keeping an eye on the status of the demo and construction planned for 65 Washington Street. Hoping for alternative location for the electrical cabinet in Derby Square. Tree pits on Front Street and Central Street, to be replanted this spring season. Casa Tequila going into old Murphy’s space, will close at 11pm, which the neighborhood is happy to hear. • North Street Northfields: No winter meetings, nothing to report. • Mack Park: Gas work going on along Tremont Street. Would like the Mack Park bathrooms unlocked more regularly for the public. • Bridge Street: Met with David Kucharsky and will be holding a larger meeting February 20th, 6:30pm at the Hawthorne Hotel, to hear public input on pedestrian improvements and traffic calming along Bridge Street. City Updates:  • The Scholarship & Education Committee has updated the application form and changed the application deadline to May 15. You can find the form and more details at https://www.salem.com/scholarship-and-education-committee. • The City Council Committee on Administration and Finance will meet on the concept of a potential entertainment tax, on March 7th at 6pm in the City Council chambers. • MassDOT has issued the bid docs for the second phase of the Salvo Multi-Use path on Canal Street. If all goes well the contractor will be on board by this spring and construction will be able to get underway in the summer. • MassDOT is also preparing for an improvement project to the Route 114 overpass. This may involve temporary lane closures. The City will share information via the BuildingSalem initiative in advance as we receive it. • The City anticipates MassDOT will also be advancing the downtown bike lane striping project this spring/summer. • The deadline to apply for an FY19 property tax exemption is March 31, 2019. Find more details about how to apply and who qualifies at https://www.salem.com/assessor/files/property-tax-relief- fy19 and https://www.salem.com/assessor/files/cpa-exemption-application. • The developer for 65 Washington Street anticipates commencing with their demolition work in early March. Details will be posted at the BuildingSalem sites. The overall project is about 18 months, but demo will only take a few weeks. Meters on Federal Street and Washington Street around the site will be offline, as well as a few at Federal/St. Peters. • Applications for creative entrepreneurs interested in renting one of the spaces on Artists Row for the 2019 season have until March 1st to submit their application. More details and the application can be found at http://www.artistsrowsalem.com/. • Tuesday, February 19th and Thursday February 21st at 10am at the CLC: Veterans Coffee Hour open house for veterans and their families. Next Meeting: Wednesday, March 13, 2019, 7pm, 98 Washington Street Adjourned: 7:58 p.m.