Solar at the Airport? A Better Sign near Boon's. Good Ideas at the Planning Commission and Historic Landmarks Commission

The Planning Commission meets tomorrow, Tuesday the 16th, and you might have seen on social media a great idea for a solar farm.

So much open field - some for solar?

Planning Commissioner Michael Slater has a motion to study the possibility of using some of that open space for solar panels and a microgrid.

Motion at the Planning Commission

That seems like an excellent way to use open space that has otherwise been empty.

Old and badly dated sign deserves an update

Separately, at the Historic Landmarks Commission on Thursday the 18th, Jim Scheppke has been working on a proposal to replace the outdated narrative and framing on a sign from 1959 across the street from Boon's, commemorating the second mission of Jason Lee.

The Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde and the Confederated Tribes of the Siletz agree we deserve an updated and more inclusive narrative of our local history there.

Newish Plaque at Jason Lee House site (April)

There is also that sign at the Jason Lee house site. (Where are the bricks? It references invisible bricks!)

That area is old and deserves a much richer telling of the intersecting and sometimes conflicting stories at a cultural crossroads in the center of Salem history.

This too is a great idea.