SALEM Third St. extension generates concern

Residents are fearful the work will create noise, reduce home values and endanger children.
By NORMAN LEIGH
VINDICATOR SALEM BUREAU
SALEM -- The city administration's plan to widen and extend a portion of East Third Street is producing concern among residents who live on and near the street.
More than two dozen residents attended Wednesday's city council meeting and presented council with a petition bearing about 150 signatures.
The petition asks council to carefully consider the impact the project will have on the residential street.
Council responded by giving the first of three required readings to two pieces of legislation that would authorize the nearly $1.7 million project that will affect Third and two other streets. Council also agreed to discuss residents' concerns further at a meeting set for 6 p.m. Wednesday.
Project details
The project, which would use borrowed money, is aimed largely at alleviating traffic congestion in the city's east side commercial district along East State Street. The project also includes improvements to Bentley Drive and Roosevelt Avenue.
Residents are concerned that the plan to link Third, now a dead-end, with Roosevelt will make the street a busy thoroughfare.
"It's not going to be the quiet neighborhood that it has been," said Debbie McCulloch, who lives on North Union Avenue near Third Street.
Residents are fearful the increased traffic will create noise, diminish home values and endanger children who attend the junior high school, which is near North Lincoln Avenue and Third.
Schools Superintendent Dr. David Brobeck said he wrote the city a letter on behalf of the school board, asking the administration to carefully weigh the project's impact.
"Increased traffic could be a concern for us," Brobeck said.
Joe Julian, city service director, said he does not think the project will endanger children.
"The majority of children who go there are bused or their parents drop them off," Julian said.
He added that improving the street is expected to actually increase home values, not reduce them.
Councilwoman Mary Lou Popa, D-1st, said council will carefully consider residents' concerns. Popa said the Third Street project has caught some residents by surprise.
"They read it in the paper. They would have liked to have had prior knowledge," she said.
Popa noted that the city for years has discussed extending Third Street.
The Third Street portion of the project will cost about $584,000, Julian said.
He added that he would like to start construction in spring. The project would take about eight months.