Improving quality of life part of Salisbury’s capital improvement plan

On Tuesday, Salisbury Mayor Jake Day announced the city council voted unanimously to adopt a capital improvement plan for the city.

Mayor Day tells us improving the quality of life by enhancing cultural and recreational spaces is one of the main  focuses for Salisbury's Capital Improvement plan, or CIP for the fiscal years of 2018-2022.

"We adopted a master plan for our zoo, we are adopting a city park master plan. We have adopted a master plan for our bike networks throughout the city," says Mayor Day.

Mayor Day tells 47 ABC those plans have been in the works, but they have now been  implemented in the 5 year CIP.

Mayor Day says a CIP works together with the city's fiscal budget and serves as a blueprint for the community's future. He explains that they typically include expenses for basic necessities and government services.

"Traditionally our expenditures are on city buildings, city vehicles, city equipment , and that's what you need to do. Those things are fundamental and important," says Mayor Day.

Although these expenses will be included in the 55 million dollar plan, Mayor Day tells us that periodically new additions are added too, and those additions include improvements in family friendly areas in the city.

"So recreation, parks, trails, bikeways," says Mayor Day.

One of the places that folks can expect changes to come is the City Park. Under the plan,  the city has located funding  for signage, benches, and trash receptacles.

Also in a later phase, people  can expect improvement in landscaping around the bandstand and installation of security cameras.

As for the Salisbury Zoo,  the plan allocates money for modifying exhibits to improve its capacity.

Mayor Day admits the cost for the implementation of all the plans may sound like a lot money, but according to him  this is one of the least expensive plans the city has adopted.

"We are being watchful of every dollar and every resource , but at the samem time  we are insuring that those investments are going to produce better results, I think then our investments, in terms of the economic return," says Mayor Day.