The meeting will be in the regular place: Council Chambers at the rear of Salem City Hall on North Broad Street.

Council is meeting early in order for Salem High School students to be recognized for academic, athletic, forensic and yearbook championships. Council meeting will be followed by a reception for students at 7 p.m in City Hall.

The location of the reception was erroneously printed in the Jan. 5 Salem Times-Register as the Salem Civic Center.

That means subscribers in the Salem and the Glenvar areas won’t be able to see what are now analog cable channels without digital equipment and older television sets that are not digital will not be able to receive the digital channels. Comcast will provide the necessary equipment, the company says.

Director of General Services Ann Marie Green explains at an August press conference why Roanoke County is joining the City of Salem in ceasing negotiations with Comcast. Photo by Meg Hibbert

Earlier this year the City of Salem and Roanoke County quit trying to negotiate with Comcast for a new contract, after the company refused to comply with Salem’s requests for upgraded service, a promise to keep a local office and a commitment to expand service to other areas of Roanoke County that are not served by any cable company.

In a press release last week, a spokesman says the company can provide up to three pieces of digital equipment at no additional monthly cost to each household.

Customers who have more than three televisions in their homes and want to be able to watch TV will have to fork out more money. Those who already have digital equipment on their TVs won’t be impacted, the company says.

The first neighborhoods in the Salem area are scheduled to be moved over to totally digital about Nov. 9, according to the company. Comcast has mailed out information to subscribers within the last month, and some say they have already gone to the Salem Comcast office to get their digital equipment.

Although a press release from the company says Comcast will provide up to three pieces of digital equipment for each customer, one person who went to the office last week said he was told he could only get two free. Comcast spokesman Alisha Martin explained existing digital customers who have one top set box can get two more.

Comcast calls its plan the “World of More” digital service enhancement that Martin says is “a nationwide initiative that we’ve been rolling out neighborhood by neighborhood across the United States and that will soon be arriving in Salem.”

She said the initiative is called “World of More” because “it’s helping us keep our customers ahead of the digital curve and bring them access to more high-definition, faster Internet speeds and the ultimate in digital video and sound.”

The company says moving analog channels to digital format will free up space on the Comcast network to deliver more to its customers. “For example, we’re planning to launch 60 new HD channels for customers in Salem in the coming months, made possible by ‘World of More,’ and we will continue to launch additional HD networks and other features and enhancements for our customers in the future,” Martin said.

Even Salem City Hall will likely be affected by the move to all digital. When Salem City Council is in executive session in a conference room off Council Chambers, city staff usually turn on news in the main room so discussions in the conference room cannot be heard. City Hall and other city departments are served by Comcast.

Under the old franchise agreement, Comcast continues to inform City of Salem officials of changes. “Comcast has been telling us for a year-and-a-half about the digital conversion,” City Manager Kevin Boggess said. “This is a continuation of a move to the digital bandwidth that allows them to get more channels through the existing copper wire that comes to the customers.”

Bids are due to be opened Friday, Sept. 30, and shortly afterward, the contract is expected to be awarded for the stretch along Riverside Drive between Eddie Street and Mill Lane.

Mark McClain of Salem, new chairman of the Greenway Commission, stands in front of a newly erected sign along the next Greenway portion that will be built along Riverside Drive. Photo by Meg Hibbert

When it is finished, kids will be able to ride their bikes, adults can walk or jog and exercise their dogs along a 3-mile uninterrupted stretch.

“I think the continued growth of the Greenway is one of the most exciting things going on in the Roanoke Valley these days,” said Mark McClain, the new chairman of the Greenway Commission. “Everyone loves the Greenway. It’s universally accepted,” the Salem resident added.

The recreational path eventually will connect Green Hill Park in Roanoke County through Salem, downtown Roanoke, Vinton and to Valley View Mall and Hollins.

“The section in Salem is one of the most interesting and beautiful sections of the Greenway,” said McClain, who was reappointed to a second three-year term on the commission in September. He was elected chairman July 1.

McClain is one of five members of the Greenway Commission representing Salem. The others are Mac Johnson, Butch Elam, Salem Planner Ben Tripp and Salem City Council Member Lisa Garst. Each of the participating jurisdictions has five members.

The Greenway section Salem City Council will award a contract for next will continue from the David Smith trail, the oldest part of the Greenway in Salem at Moyer Park, and head toward Mill Lane.

After the contract is signed, it will take a few weeks to get geared up, McClain said. “I would imagine construction would start in October. The contractor could theoretically work on the path through the winter and early spring,” he added.

Right now, the most-used section of the Greenway in Salem is the 2-year-old stretch from the Colorado Street Bridge to Salem Rotary Park on Rt. 419 near LewisGale Medical Center.

Even thought the grading and paving portion hasn’t been done yet near Mill Lane, there’s already a canoe launch, picnic table and informational sign on the Greenway route across from the City of Salem water plant. It has a new name, too: Mill Lane Park

“There will be a parking lot there, too,” McClain explained. “The section between there and Mill Lane will be done at a future date.”

McClain, who is a veteran hiker and has paddled canoes on rivers in many parts of the United States, is excited that people will be able to walk “all the way, more than 3 miles, in one continuous stretch.”

Most of the area along the river is relatively flat so construction will be mainly clearing and paving with asphalt. That’s not to say there aren’t spots that present challenges and need creative solutions.

Where 12 O’Clock Knob Road intersects with Riverside, the bank falls away and a 65-foot-bridge has to be built, McClain pointed out.

For the Greenway in Roanoke County toward Green Hill Park, there is an active study to determine the route, he said. “Roanoke County is working on that with the participation of the City of Salem,” McClain added.

Funds are already available for that section. The sections of Greenway are being built with a combination of individual donations, corporation and government money, he said.

Representatives of the Maryland-based cable company and their lawyers met with individual council members, the city manager, council’s attorney and others before and after council’s regular meeting Sept. 25.

After the closed session concluded around 10 p.m., the news was not good.

Council members issued a statement saying they were disappointed Comcast “has chosen not to make the citizens of Salem a priority when it comes to the future of cable services in our city.”

Comcast provides cable TV service to subscribers who live in the City of Salem as well as a portion of the Glenvar area and Bennett Springs. The rest of Roanoke County has Cox Cable.

In the statement, council members said its requests have fallen on deaf ears, specifically noting the city’s two most important requirements for a new franchise agreement “still do not appear to be in Comcast’s plans.”

The sticking points were council’s requirement that Comcast upgrade infrastructure, and maintain a local office in Salem.

Council members said Roanoke County also has received any information that Comcast intend to extend or upgrade cable services to Glenvar and Catawba-area residents, which county officials requested.

Anne Marie Green, who is Roanoke County’s Director of General Services, also sat in on meetings Monday night with Comcast officials.

Comcast’s franchise agreement with the City of Salem and Roanoke County ran out in October 2010. The city and the cable provider have had discussions since, but with no resolution of the sticking points.

Salem City Manager Kevin Boggess directed attorney Bob Allen to have a concluding discussion with Comcast and to get back to Boggess early next week, he said.

“These negotiations have been ongoing for the past 10 months and we owe it to our citizens to bring some closure to this issue, one way or another,” Boggess said.

Although the city manager’s office said last week that no immediate meeting had been scheduled at that time between council and Comcast, they did meet for a total of 90 minutes before the regular July 25 meeting.

According to Economic and Planning Director Melinda Payne, Comcast’s Paul Combs, an engineer, marketing representative and attorneys Crystal Gilliam of Charlottesville and Bob Jacobs met first for 30 minutes with Council members Bill Jones and Lisa Garst. Next they met with Vice Mayor John Givens, and finally, with Mayor Randy Foley and Council member Jane Johnson.

Combs was one of the Comcast representatives who came to Salem a year ago for a public meeting about the cable television company’s service. More than 300 people – almost all of them upset Comcast customers – turned out at that packed meeting in the community room of the Salem Civic Center.

They assailed Comcast representatives for more than two hours about Comcast’s shortcomings in providing TV offerings and responding to calls for problems, all the while raising monthly rates.

To read that article, go to http://ourvalley.org/hundreds-of-comcast-customers-turn-out-to-complain/

As part of the changes last year, the company cut out five favorite television channels – including the TV Guide channel lineup and the Weather Channel.

All five members went into the closed meeting after the regular session.

Under Virginia law, if a majority of an elected body’s members – in the case of Salem City Council, three or more – meet to discuss city business, that constitutes an official meeting, and the public must be informed in advance.

Monday night’s executive session was under provisions of state law that allow elected bodies to hold a closed meeting for the purpose of consultation with legal counsel, and, Yost pointed out, if it were done in public session would adversely affect negotiations.

At a 90-minute work session after the regular Salem City Council meeting May 9, council members decided to axe Goodwill Industries’ request for $10,000 in next year’s proposed $144-million overall budget, and give the agency only $2,000.

Goodwill was one of 44 human and community service agency requests for city money.

By cutting that $10,000 request, trimming down Center in the Square’s annual campaign request for $173,750 to $15,000, and adjusting other requested contributions, the city wound up with about $30,000 in appropriation reserves for the next fiscal year.

The numbers aren’t final until Salem City Council takes an official vote on the budget, which is expected in June.

Ultimately, Council agreed to give Goodwill $2,000, after Council Member Bill Jones suggested that.

Reasons council members gave for not giving anything to Goodwill Industries started with Mayor Randy Foley’s opening statement: “I don’t know that they need us.” Other council members said Goodwill Industries is notably successful in its fundraising efforts, particularly with its resale stores. Salem has two, one on East Main Street and the newer one that opened this year on West Main Street, across from Walmart.

Salem Vice Mayor John Givens added, “I’d rather give something to Habitat for Humanity than Goodwill.”

Council earmarked $9,000 for now, and may consider raising that. The amount is the same as what the city gave this year. Habitat builds homes for first-time owners who qualify because of limited incomes.

Although Roanoke College students have built a house as a freshman project for the past four years, and a number of Salem churches also help build Habitat houses, they have all been located in the City of Roanoke.

Salem City Manager Kevin Boggess noted Habitat has not been successful in finding property in Salem to build, because of property values, and Habitat officials would rather use their resources in Roanoke where they could make their money stretch farther.

Several Salem City Council members expressed desires for city officials to talk with Habitat for Humanity board members to see if details could be worked out to build a Habitat home in Salem.

Other proposed appropriations in Salem’s budget for next year range from $500 for the Young Audiences program that brings cultural activities to Salem and surrounding area elementary schools; to $15,000 to the Food Pantry that provides food to needy individuals and families in Salem and Roanoke County.

Salem’s total projected budget for 2011-2012 is $144-million, including a $41-million school budget.

That includes a 1 percent cost of living increase for city employees, plus a one-time $800 bonus. School employees will get a 2 percent bonus plus a 1 percent cost of living increase. According to figures from Finance Director Frank Turk, those amounts are line with what surrounding counties and cities are projecting for employees in the next fiscal year.

Salem employees have gone three years without a salary increase.

Editor’s note: The original article and that published in the May 12 printed issue had an incorrect amount for Goodwill Industries.

There are dozens of parks in the area where people can play. But not dogs. Canines are not permitted in Salem parks, and most others, either, except the sole dog park in the City of Roanoke.

Chris and Christina Lee give Nitro some loving at the Salem Animal Shelter where they adopted the deaf boxer puppy. Photo by Meg Hibbert

Salem City Council Member Lisa Garst feels so strongly about the need for the dog park that a few weeks ago she got a new license plate. It reads, simply, DOG PARK.

“I got it in an effort to raise awareness of the need,” said Garst. “Dog parks are for people, too.”

The major thing that’s missing to make the dream of the dog park a reality is money.

Salem Special Projects Manager Teri Atkins explained individuals, businesses and industries need to come up with $15,000 out of the estimated total cost of $40,000.

So far, across-the-road neighbor Yokohama Tire Corp. has contributed $5,000, and the Salem Lions Club has given $2,000.

A four-tier scale has been established for corporate and personal donations ranging from $500 to $10,000. Smaller amounts are welcome, too. There’s a fund already set up, Teri Atkins said. It’s “Friends of the Dog Park.”

Salem City Manager Kevin Boggess said if the community comes up with the money to build the dog park, the city will take it over and maintain it.

The 1-3/4 acres on Indiana Street will have a fenced area of about 1 acre, Atkins said, with areas for smaller dogs separated from those for larger dogs. There are plans for lighting so the park can be open in the evenings, a water source, landscaping and other amenities.

It will be handicapped accessible, Atkins said.

City officials and pet lovers are also hoping that having the dog park next to the Salem Animal Shelter will promote more adoptions. “This park will provide citizens a safe place to let their dogs play off leash and exercise, while simultaneously increasing our shelter’s adoption and outreach abilities,” City Planner Ben Tripp said.

Christina Lee is one of the Salem-area residents looking forward to having the dog park. Even though she and her husband, Chris, have space where their dogs to get outside at their home in the Masons Cove area, they want the opportunity for their deaf dog, a white Boxer named Nitro, to be able to socialize with other dogs his size.

They adopted Nitro from the Salem Animal Shelter, and frequently take him back to visit the staff there. Christina Lee takes photographs of the dogs and cats at the shelter, to be posted on the shelter’s website adoption page. She trains Nitro three times a week at PetsMart in Roanoke, and takes him out to meet people – and other dogs – whenever and wherever she can.

Lee hopes when the fenced Salem dog park opens, she will be able to let Nitro off the leash to play, like any other dog. She hopes other owners of dogs with special needs will be able to let their dogs run and play, too.

Even though Nitro cannot hear her call him, she is beginning to train him with a vibrating collar so that she can give him a tiny signal when she wants him to come from across the park.

Anyone who wants to make a contribution to the future Salem dog park should call Atkins at 375-3060.

Backyard chicken keepers got mad as proverbial wet hens after finding out council intended to ban chickens except on property zoned agricultural.

This sign in Steven Helm's yard is one of three that appeared last week in support of backyard hens in Salem. Photo by Carrie Cox

Feb. 28 Salem City Council delayed action after backyard chicken enthusiasts and those who support contacted council members to ask more study of the reworded fowl ordinance.

More than a dozen Salem residents wearing “I’m for chickens in Salem” name tags attended the Feb. 28 council meeting. Half of them stayed through the meeting, even after hearing action would be delayed until comprehensive plan revisions are completed in the next month or so.

Section 14 of the Salem City Code would ban keeping chickens, ducks, turkeys and other domesticated fowl in the city except on agriculturally zoned land.

Meanwhile, several handmade signs supporting chickens appeared in front yards near Roanoke College, on Carrollton, Hawthorne and Mount Vernon Avenue.

“Support chickens What’s next The Duck Pond?” reads the sign in Steven Helm’s yard.

“No chickens? What’s next? the horses @ HopeTree?” says the sign in the yard of Carl Hart and Jennifer Deegan, referring to horses across the street in pasture at HopeTree Family Services.

“You can take my life but you’ll never take my chickens,” attributed to William Wallace Braveheart, reads another.

Deegan, who has kept hens since 2002, said she decided to go public after the flap arose, to support other people.

Salem residents who have hens and those who don’t wonder what harm a few backyard egg producers cause, and expressed their appreciation that council is willing to spend more time studying the situation.

Jennifer and Paul Henrickson are among backyard raisers who are glad council is rethinking the outright ban.

“With all the things Salem does well, I think they can do this well, too, if they can they can take the time and write a more precise ordinance,” said Paul Henrickson, the chaplain at Roanoke College, who made his wife’s dream of having hens come true a year ago with a combination birthday and Valentine’s gift.

They had no idea there was a conflict between city code and zoning. Like Carrie and Justin Cox on Academy Street, Paul Henrickson had checked the city code and found hens were OK.

“Jennifer always wanted hens. On her birthday on Jan. 27, 2010, I gave her a certificate that said in two weeks she would be receiving baby chickens,” he explained. Originally, there were 10, but half of them have “passed away,” he said. The remaining five Rhode Island reds, buff orpingtons and one barred rock hen give the couple four to five eggs per day, enough for themselves as well as to give away to friends.

“My grandchildren just love the hens,” said Jennifer Henrickson. “They come over and play with them and collect the eggs.” In turn, the hens give the Henricksons’ fertilizer which Jennifer cleans out of the coop and tills into the couple’s garden.

The move to a chicken ban has been stewing for about three years, after a neighbor complained to city authorities over her next-door-neighbor’s hens. It turns out there was a conflict between Salem zoning and the city’s code section. In one area of city policy, chickens are permitted, but zoning prohibits them except in AG.

The majority of council members and City Manager Kevin Boggess visited the Coxes’ backyard chicken coop with six hens behind their house on Academy Street. At the time, council decided informally not to decide anything.

More recently, council members discussed the zoning-code conflict during work sessions held before council meetings, and decided to to take the easiest way out by banning chickens and other domestic fowl in all zoning districts except agriculture.

School representatives said they don’t have a contractor yet, but plan to break ground on the former Elizabeth Campus property in April and open for students in September.

Engineer Barney Horrell, a Salem Montessori parent, points out how the proposed school building would sit on the Elizabeth Campus, facing Commerce Drive. Photo by Meg Hibbert

Two weeks ago, council voted to sell the acreage next to the Salem Family YMCA to the school, if a special exception was approved. The next night the Salem Planning Commission recommended approval, and council did that Feb. 28.

Schools are allowed in Single Family Residential zoning, as a special exception. The property where the school intends to build is zoned R-1. That’s what a majority of the nearby residents who spoke, as well as one developer interested in building 14 townhomes, wanted to see instead of the school.

At the public hearing Monday night, Barney Horrell, a parent and the engineer who drew up the plans for the single-story school structure, reassured residents the building would not obstruct their views, would fit into the neighborhood with its solid-brick construction, would not have nighttime lights nor activities.

The school plans to preserve an area of woods with mature, old oaks, and use it for nature studies, Horrell said.

Builder Brad Graham addressed council to explain the alternative use he and Joe Thomas have for the property, to build 14 townhomes that would sell for about $250,000, he estimated, and said council has not been approachable about the land’s use. “The only reason you do not have an entire room of angry residents is they have been worn down,” he said.

“No one seems to want to compromise.” He did not disclose how much his firm offered the city to purchase the property, and said he had received no response from city officials.

Resident Nora Smith, who also represented her daughter Lucy Koons and property owners Sara Aholt, told council she was in favor of the school. “If it is not rezoned for the Salem Montessori School, I will be looking at patio homes or less attractive commercial,” she said.

“The campus environment will blend in with what is already there.”

Those who spoke against the school included Eddie Mullins, who said he was promised homes would be on the property; Judd Hale, who would rather see patio homes; Stella Reinhart, who questioned what appeared to be “fast-tracking” approval of the school’s plan.

Council took a step forward to reassure residents nervous about business uses encroaching into their neighborhoods.

Council voted 4-0, with Council Member Jane Johnson absent, to change a section of the code pertaining to the Residential Business District zoning, and add a sub-section that would allow some commercial uses only with special exceptions.

Boulevard residents Cynthia and Frank Munley used this tree in front of their house to oppose Residential Business zoning changes. File photo by Meg Hibbert

Those are personal services, financial institutions, antique shops, day care centers, family day care in homes and multifamily residences.

The vote came after a public hearing where four people spoke, some of whom raised concerns before council voted unanimously in August to zone the entire 500 block of Boulevard to Residential Business.

It had been zoned residential, which, council and staff pointed out at the time, was an error because dentist G. Sprinkle’s office building had been located there for more than 20 years.

The RB change was made so that the professional office building would be a conforming use, as well as a house next door that attorney Richard Padgett wanted to turn back into his law office.

Changes approved on first reading Jan. 24 separate out portions of the city, particularly Boulevard and Union Street, “to try to protect the neighborhood character,” Salem City Manager Kevin Boggess told council.

Before this change the types of uses that will be special exceptions in the future were “by right” in the RB zone. Under the change applications for such businesses in RB will require planning commission review and Salem City Council approval, the city manager explained.

“We realize that barber shops and hair salons would have to go through these same processes as other businesses, and pay a $700 application fee,” Boggess said. “This is the price we pay to make sure” a type of businesses is evaluated.

Also under the new Section E, there can be no front-yard parking lots, and drive-thru businesses would not be allowed. Neither would small convenience stores, such as the Dilly-Dally market in the South Salem neighborhood, Boggess pointed out, which has already closed for other reasons.

Speakers at Monday night’s meeting were Boulevard residents Frank Munley and Cynthia Munley, North Broad Street resident Stella Reinhard and High Street resident David Robbins.

In August the Munleys led a movement to stop the Boulevard RB rezoning that starts across the side street from their house.

Although he said he believed zoning needs could have been met in other ways than RB, Frank Munley told council “They are very welcome, and are indeed a sense of relief for me.”

He added that “Residential Business is a bit of an oxymoron,” and asked council to consider completely eliminating that designation in the future.

Munley said he would rather see a new category of Professional Office, instead of general office use, and a revised zoning with the same RB initials – Retail Business, instead of Residential Business.

Reinhard said she wouldn’t want RB zoning in her historic neighborhood of North Broad Street, and accused council of “flipping” the whole block of Boulevard and a section of Union.

“The more you flip things to business, the more buildings will be torn down,” she said.

David Robbins, a former member of the Salem Planning Commission, complimented council, saying “I think you have done a good job moving as quickly as you have to bridge this gap…I think it is a good first step.”

Cynthia Munley spoke for 26 minutes against zoning changes and the comprehensive plan in general, with specific opposition to commercial threats to Union and Boulevard, “a quaint residential street and an historic Boulevard.”

Calling council’s August actions “a radical action” and “not a fair use of power,” she emphasized “Citizens should have been tapped for their ideas.”

Two minutes before she wrapped up her comments, Mayor Randy Foley interrupted Cynthia Munley, asking her to stay germane to the zoning change being considered.

“This is not pertinent,” he said, before she fired back that she was not being listened to and treated fairly.

Salem City Council unanimously approved Ledbetter Monday night, along with reappointing School Board Member Sally Southard. Sinkler’s term will end Dec. 31.

Salem City Council appointed Artice Ledbetter, left, as the newest Salem School Board member, and reappointed Sally Southard to three-year terms on Nov. 22.

Ledbetter and her husband have been actively involved with Salem Public Schools since the first of their three sons – Jerrel, Jeremy and Ashton – entered South Salem Elementary School.

Jerrel Ledbetter is now a senior at Salem High School and over the weekend was named champion in Extemporaneous Speaking at a four-state invitational debate and forensics team competition in North Carolina.