City Council Rejects Downtown Revitalization Project - WMDT 47 News - Delmarva's Choice

SALISBURY, Md. - In a 3 to 2 vote, the Salisbury City Council shot down Mayor Jim Ireton's plan to revitalize the downtown area.

At a press conference on the Downtown Plaza, the mayor pleaded for the public's help."It took 14 minutes for our council majority to say we don't want anything to do with your downtown. What happened was is that they stuck the needle in the eye of a whole lot of people who have worked real hard down here," Ireton said.

City Council president Terry Cohen was the first to say "no!" These are business decisions because there are other businesses outside of the area that also have to be considered. We have to think about the city as a whole. So I think there's more ways to revitalize downtown then simply coming up with a corporate welfare package."

Councilwoman Laura Mitchell expressed her frustration with her colleagues. "If you don't explore it and actually have the discussion, then you don't know what really is the make or break point. And here we are again shutting it down before we have all the information based on a cursory look and pre-existing tunneled vision, in my mind, of some members of this council. I'll just say that I apologize to the business community because I think it's a damn shame."

The Mayor refuses to take no for an answer. "We need people in the elected office who can learn how to say 'yes.' Our city has spent far too much time chasing it's tail to have these sorts of things happen again. We had such high hopes for this council and this council president, and they've been dashed."

Ireton is teaming up with Mitchell to start a petition - they're pushing to get as many people as they can to sign in hopes of convincing the council that they need to move forward with this project. "I'm going to continue to stand here and fight for all the good things that are happening down here," Ireton said.

To sign the petition, head to the city of Salisbury's website at www.ci.salisbury.md.us. It will be go up on the website within the next couple days.