PGI offers to save historic Cascade Saloon

With a fate that has been hanging in the balance for years, the historic Cascade Saloon on Elm street may be saved through an offer made to the City of Greensboro by Preservation Greensboro Inc.

Cascade Saloon is one of the oldest structures in downtown Greensboro, and in desperate need of stabilization. The building is currently owned by the City of Greensboro, and on July 10 members of City Council reviewed their options on what to do with the structure.

Assistant City Manager David Parrish presented the best bids received by the City to preserve or demolish the structure. The best demolition bid came back with an estimated cost of $600,000. This shocked some members of Council.

“How can the Greensboro Inn be torn down for $35,000 and this one would be so much more expensive?” said councilman Tony Wilkins.

Cascade’s Saloon proximity to the railroad tracks would complicate demolition. Permits would be needed to ensure that crews would not disrupt the railway traffic, which according to Mayor Nancy Vaughan, sees 65 trains pass through downtown every day.

A recent bid from PGI offered to take the property from the City in order to secure and preserve the building. PGI asks that the City pay them $170,000 to help subsidize the cost of stabilizing the structure.

“This is much better than the initial plan,” said councilman Zack Matheny. “The city can save money. Financially for the City this is a lot better deal than we had anticipated.”

Other members of council were skeptical.

“What if people can’t get to the Cantina and other businesses nearby while construction is going on?” said council member Sharon Hightower.

Other council members argued that the risk of disrupting local businesses was a lesser concern compared to the benefit of preserving a historic building for $430,000 less than the cost of demolishing it.

“We have to make the best decision for the city,” said council member Nancy Hoffman. “Not just one person.”

Matheny added that the City of Greensboro was not a good landlord, and that it would be better for the building to be owned by PGI anyway.

Council decided that they needed more information from PGI about the intended future of Cascade Saloon before they could make a decision about the bid.

“Because we don’t know the end use, we can’t make that decision right now,” said Mayor Vaughan.

Greensboro City Council Flustered by Bill from Higher State Powers

Council members were noticeably uncomfortable while expressing their general lack of faith in a resolution to support a student prayer and religious activities bill passed by the NC House on June 4.

The resolution was introduced by Councilman Tony Wilkins, who felt that SB 370 clarified confusion among administrators and students.

The first amendment already protects the religious freedoms of students in schools. The NC ACLU opposes the bill, which it called problematic.

“The right of students to voluntarily express and practice their faith in public schools is already well-established and protected by the First Amendment,” said Sarah Preston, ACLU-NC Policy Director. “Some of this bill’s unnecessary and confusing language could wrongly encourage public school personnel to takes sides in student-led religious activity, making students with different beliefs feel excluded or ostracized not only by their classmates, but also by their teachers and schools.”

Councilwoman Marikay Abuzuaiter was concerned that the bill might encourage faithful students to become more aggressive in proselytizing to their public school peers.

“I believe that moments of silence allow everyone to pray; you’re not co-mingling church and state,” said Abuzuaiter. “This allows students to distribute literature. This part concerns me.”

Mayor Vaughan voiced concern that it was not the place of City Council to take a stance on the issue. Vaughan felt that the bill was under the jurisdiction of the School Board.

“I feel that this is a resolution that should come from the School Board,” Vaughan said. “We’ve had concerns over what the legislature has been doing to us by overstepping into areas of our authority, and I feel that we would be doing the same thing here to the School Board.”

“This isn’t us telling the School Board what to do, it’s the state,” said Wilkins.

Councilman Jamal Fox also agreed that it was a School Board issue, even though he expressed his agreement with the first part of the bill, which explains what students are allowed to do while at school.

Councilman Zack Matheny felt that he had to support the resolution as an advocate for free speech, but made it clear that he was unhappy about having to vote on it at all.

“I don’t like these resolutions,” said Matheny. “We bring them up and I complain about them every time. We’re talking about something where we don’t really have any say-so whatsoever.”

Councilman Mike Barber was also frustrated by presence of the bill on the supplemental agenda, and felt it was an example of the NC General Assembly’s lack of priorities.

“Here in this Council we’re doing things where the rubber meets the road,” said Barber. “I wish our state legislators spent as much time on more pertinent issues. I commend Tony for bringing this to us but this is one that I just can’t support.”

Sharon Hightower voted to support the resolution after expressing her apprehension over the consequences of the grievance process outlined in the bill.

“When I see Raleigh stepping up to something like this I’m a little leery of the reason behind it,” said Hightower. “I’m not against religion at all. I’m just afraid that supporting this with the grievance process will get people going back and forth in court.”

Matheny and Wilkins voted to pass the resolution along with Hightower, but ultimately the bill failed to pass on a vote of three to six.

Architectural Salvage to Receive Supplemental Funding for Involuntary Move

Greensboro City Council unanimously passed a resolution on Tuesday night to authorize the City Manager to enter into a supplemental agreement to provide funding for Architectural Salvage’s imminent move.

Architectural Salvage is a program of Preservation Greensboro that collects materials from historic properties that are scheduled to be razed. Since 1993 Architectural Salvage has kept an estimated 20 tons of construction debris from being dumped into landfills. The program also allows the City to receive federal funding by keeping the City in compliance with the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966.

Architectural Salvage has been located at the 90-year-old, 15,800 square foot building at 300 Bellameade St since 1998.

The property was purchased by the Carroll Fund, an entity of Carroll Companies, owned by Roy Carroll. Carroll is the developer behind major projects in Greensboro that include Centerpointe on Elm St., Hayleigh Village, Innisbrook and the Shops at Brittway.

Carroll plans to demolish the building to make room for a $50 million mixed-use development project. Architectural Salvage must be out of the building by June 15.

On May 19 Preservation Greensboro sent a letter to City Manager, Jim Westmoreland, requesting that the city assist with the financial burden of the organization’s move.

The letter states, “Since ASG provides recycling of old building materials, keeps tons of construction waste from the landfills and provides a conduit for the City to use in obtaining federal grants, we are requesting the City assist ASG with its involuntary move from its current location.” Preservation Greensboro attached an estimate of $18,00 from Delancey Street Moving & Transportation.

Council briefly shared their support for the work done by Architectural Salvage before resolving to fund the organization the full $18,000. Members were impressed by the amount of material Architectural Salvage has been able to keep out of City landfills.

Councilman Zack Matheny said, “I consider this a thank you for saving the taxpayers money.”

Sharon Hightower said that Architectural Salvage had been very helpful during the restoration of Magnolia Manor outside of Greensboro. (see correction.)

Architectural Salvage will be moving away from downtown to a new location on Wendover Avenue.

Correction: This post has been updated to reflect the location of Magnolia Manor just outside of Greensboro in Colfax.

 

Teen Summit Planned for Next Saturday in Greensboro

The City of Greensboro is hosting a summit to inform teens about programs and community events they can do over the summer.  The Teen Summit will be held on downtown on Saturday, May 31st.

Councilwoman Sharon Hightower promoted the event at the end of the last City Council meeting and again at the end of the East Greensboro Study Committee meeting on Thursday afternoon.

“There’s going to be free food, it’s going to be fun and hopefully it will encourage kids to stay busy and out of trouble,” said Hightower.

Guildford County School students end the school year on June 19th this year. For a bored, unsupervised kid with working parents and nothing else to do, summer vacation can lead to problems.

The City Summit will have more than 15 local service providers there to advise and inform teens about different career paths and how they can get involved in their communities.  Members of City Council will also be there to encourage teens to get participate in local government.

The Teen Summit will be held from 3-6pm on Saturday at the Greensboro Cultural Center on 200 N. Davie Street.

GTA Costs Spark Heated Debate at City Council Meeting

Things became heated between representatives of Greensboro’s Transit Authority (GTA) and some members of City Council on Tuesday night over the cost of maintaining the service.

The discussion began during the public comment portion of the meeting.  Greensboro resident Lonnie Cunningham urged Council to consider a bond referendum to continue to subsidize the cost of bus fares at the current rate.

Cunningham suggested that one way to pay for the bus system would be to have a youth group collect all the campaign signs left around the City and send a bill to the candidates.

Cunningham also pointed out that buses in Chapel Hill are free.

“Chapel Hill has free buses because UNC subsidizes it,” Mayor Vaughan responded.  Council members chimed in to say that the City does take public transportation seriously and that they already heavily subsidize the cost of bus fares, which are currently $1.50 per trip for riders.

Bruce Adams, the Senior Operations Planner for the GTA, presented the program of projects for the GTA for the upcoming fiscal year. The program includes the addition of hybrid buses, which cost 40 to 50 percent more than regular buses. The recurrent maintenance is less costly with hybrid buses, but GTA representatives did concede that there is a high replacement cost for batteries that only last about five years.

Councilman Zack Matheny jumped on the discussion. Matheny, who has advocated for increasing the price of bus fares by twenty cents, pointed out that the GTA costs the City of Greensboro around $23 million each year, and at a rate of $35 per bus ride.

“If we raise the rates could we not do more to help GTA?” asked Matheny. “The cost of buses is going up.  The cost of fuel is going up. Do you see where I’m going with this?”

Councilwoman Sharon Hightower expressed her strong disagreement with Matheny on the issue, but eventually they decided to table the discussion for now and agree to disagree.

A twenty cent increase would add up for members of the community who rely on public transportation to get around everyday. A person making two or three round trips a day could end up paying an extra dollar a day.

Matheny demonstrated that this issue will most likely be a priority for him in the future. “You’re probably going to hear a lot more about this from me,” said Matheny.