Wednesday, May 09, 2007

Salemtown Block Grant Committee Update: MDHA Issues Request for Neighborhood Project Proposals

Last night's Salemtown Community Advisory Committee (CAC) Meeting initiated a new phase of planning for block grant projects. We were told by our Metropolitan Development and Housing Agency rep that a request for proposals for possible neighborhood projects on which to spend the $589,000 Salemtown block grant had been issued and that several responses from design firms had already been received. May 24 is the deadline for receipt of proposals.

The "Project Priority List" of possible projects on which to spend the block grant has been determined by the Salemtown CAC (based on 2 years of public discussions) as follows:
  • Distinctive Street I.D. signs
  • Traffic calming bulb extensions at intersections
  • Decorative crosswalks
  • Decorative lighting
  • Distinctive neighborhood entryway signs
After May 24, a Selection Committee (which will include two CAC members, one of which is yours truly) will read through the proposals and will select the design proposal best qualified to make improvements to the neighborhood.

At last night's meeting, CAC members agreed to cancel June and July meetings, since very little could be accomplished by the CAC until the Selection Committee does its work.

2 comments:

  1. How far into Salemtown would these improvements extend?

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  2. Any part of Salemtown is considered. Obviously, there are places that require somethings more than others. For instance, well-traveled and or "entry way" intersections would be logical candidates for crosswalks (although if the budget works out, crosswalks are cheap enough that they could be put lots of places. One of the challenges we have discussed about decorative lights is that they have to be close to a power source, since burying power lines underground (which is required) would eat up the block grant quickly.

    Those questions have been part of the committee discussions. And the CAC meetings are open to the public and welcome public feedback. We won't be meeting for a couple of months, but if you have ideas in the meantime, e-mail them and I'll take them with me. I've posted fairly extensively on past CAC meetings (although not recently), so just do a "block grant" search in the search box at the top and it should provide more details into past discussions.

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