Members of Salem City Council and the Economic Development Authority met in an hour-long work session Monday night to discuss possible economic incentives to attract new businesses and industries, and how to support those already in Salem.
The two boards met in the conference room of the Salem Electric Department, before the regularly scheduled March 25 meeting. That council meeting lasted four minutes.
At the joint meeting, EDA members Quinn Mongan, Wayne Adkins, David Robbins, Cindy Shelor and Todd Parsons gave their ideas.
They and councilmembers talked about attracting manufacturing jobs compared to hotels and restaurants, which feed the meals tax and those, in turn, feed the schools budget. Mongan said what they should be considering is “If it is the type of thing that could grow.”
Robbins suggested using technology to support small businesses such as home occupations. “We have the technology to put them on a website if they want, and digitally publish that list,” Robbins said.
The two bodies also talked about possibly turning over city-owned property to commercial real estate firms to market. In particular, those were properties on Fourth Street next to Dalton’s old car lot. Interim City Manager Jay Taliaferro said, “It is difficult to actively market these properties.” And he asked, “Do we want to use a different strategy to move these?”
City Council Member Bill Jones, who is in real estate, said, “I think it is a better return on your money to turn them over to commercial real estate.”
Other city-owned property is at the intersection of Thompson Memorial Boulevard and East Main Street, and the former Carilion Clinic on West Main Street. Taliaferro said the city wants to hold onto those for a while because the Thompson Memorial property is an entryway into downtown.
Mongan reminded, “We even talked about extending the road behind the Carilion Clinic to the Tea Tavern.”
Adkins said, “The East Main Street building needs to consolidate with the two houses on the back, if possible.”
Economic Development Director Melinda Payne said the city is working on getting owners of the smaller buildings to sell to the city.
Council Member James Martin said with the payoff of the incentives to the Lowe’s store, “We have these outstanding opportunities now.” Lowe’s was built on the site of a former shopping center that was on the old tannery site, and was a superfund site with money available for cleanup of industrial waste.
The developer approached the city about giving incentives to build, Taliaferro said.
Ideas from the citizens on the EDA were “Why we picked you guys,” Jones said. “Everything needs to go to you guys before it gets to us.”
There were no votes at the work session. Council and the EDA agreed to meet again in May, after the city’s budget work sessions are completed the end of April.
