Council awards contract for pedestrian path on Mill Lane
SALEM – Salem City Council Monday night approved a $167,219 contract with Alleghany construction to construct a pedestrian walkway on West Riverside Drive to Mill Lane. The so-called “safety corridor shared use plan” in the Woodbridge neighborhood would provide “safer access along Riverside Drive and connect with the path already on Mill Lane,” Salem City Engineer Chuck Van Allman said at the July 26 Council meeting.
Alleghany, the low bidder, is expected to begin work on the 1/3-mile path by mid-August and could complete the project within a month, Van Allman said, “if the weather cooperates.”
The paved path would provide access for people walking and biking along that busy stretch of Riverside Drive. Although it is not part of the Greenway pathways, that path will make it easier to people to get to the Greenway already completed and sections planned.
“It comes out of a different pot of money than the transportation funds for the Greenway,” Van Allman pointed out. Salem City Councilman Lisa Garst, one of the members representing Salem on the Greenway Commission, thanked Van Allman and others concerned with “continuing to find ways to take care of our citizens and to find ways to pay for it.”
Council had a small agenda Monday night, with only four items listed.
In addition to the pedestrian walkway, council:
• postponed until the Aug. 9 Council meeting on making a decision on adopting a resolution supporting and authorizing the city’s participation in a regional consortium to apply for and implement a Sustainable Communities Regional Planning Grant. Council wanted more time to find out “a little more what that grant is,” said Councilman Bill Jones, in making the motion to continue the item.
• appointed Samuel “Sam” Reed Carter III to the Salem Planning Commission, to fill the seat being vacated by 17-year veteran Gardner Smith. “We are thankful for Mr. Smith’s service on the planning commission and took him at his word that he did not want to be reappointed,” Vice Chairman John Givens said. “Sam Carter will be a very good plus for the city.” His appointment came after a 30-minute closed session to discuss appointments to boards and commissions.
• took no action on the first item on a supplemental agenda that was to be discussed in the closed session, properties the city might wish to sell.
