Grant Neighborhood Association on Thursday is Packed!

Jason Lee Memorial Methodist Episcopal Church, circa 1912
via Streetview, 2012

The Grant Neighborhood Association has an interesting meeting for Thursday the 6th.

But first a note from last month's meeting:

The Jason Lee Church is combining its dwindling congregation with Englewood Methodist. They are looking for creative uses for their building. It would be worth our while to engage them and pursue uses and historic preservation of the structure.

Hopefully they'll find new uses for the building. It's a little chunky and blocky, and I do not think of it as among Salem's loveliest just on aesthetics alone. (Here's one of the Barrick postcards with an historic image. They pressed their own concrete blocks, so there's some DIY involved! The First Congregational Church on the Park Blocks in Portland is a little older, and altogether more graceful in comparison.) But by Salem standards it's more than a little venerable and it seems like a candidate to be deconsecrated and repurposed for secular ends. Right across the street there is one of Salem's old fire stations, now an office or something (see here on one of its southside mates), and the six-legged intersection on Fairgrounds and Winter has a pleasantly weird energy that seems ripe for a new vision and modest redevelopment.

And in that light, next month the November meeting looks interesting:

Jason Lee Church – future prospects
Heritage Films – Salem Heritage All Star Forum – Kimberli Fitzgerald
Capitol Building Relics form 1935 Fire – Alice LaViolette

I know NEN has some of the 1935 relics. You can see them in Mill Creek at Olinger pool, just on the west of the 13th St. footbridge behind ODOT. Does Grant also have some relics? That could be interesting!

And you might recall that Heritage video, which seemed so much more expressive, soulful, and vital than the "sizzle" video by the Chamber.

The latest on Marine Drive, Second Street,
and the Union St RR Bridge paths and trestle (July 2016)

On the agenda itself for the 6th are Marine Drive and the Union Street Railroad Bridge, the UGB amendments for the Salem River Crossing, and a lively discussion on the right size for a new Police Station:

[6] West Salem Business District Feasibility Study, Virginia Green;
[7] Salem Plan Amendment UGB Changes, Cara Kaser;
[8] City Water Rates Discussion;
[9] Police Facility Discussion
Keep Salem Safe – Yes on 24-399, Patrick Sieng;
Salem Can Do Better PAC, Carole Smith and/or Brian Hines;
Questions & Answers & Discussion;

That's a lot of meaty topics of citywide significance as well having neighborhood impact, and if you live in the Grant neighborhood it would be worth your while. 

The Grant Neighborhood Association meeting is on Thursday the 6th, at 6:15pm in the Library of Grant Community School, 725 Market St NE.