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The Chronicle
Volume41,Number34 WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. THURSDAY, May 7, 2015
Rezoning issue moves residents j
Salvation Army gets Council vote delay
BY CHANEL DAVIS
rHE CHRONICLE ?
While both the Housing Authority of Winston-Salem and The Salvation Army will
have to wait to hear City Council's decision on the rezoning of 939 Cleveland Ave., all
three parties heard the voices of those who live in the Cleveland Avenue community as
they filled council chamber Tuesday night to capacity.
The room, which can hold up to 78 people including council members and city staff,
was full of those pressing to make sure their voices were heard before council made its
decision.
The Salvation Army asked Council to table its vote on the rezoning for 60 days to
allow the agency to look into other options.
"At this point in time. The Salvation Army is not comfortable withdrawing or moving
See Rezoning on A2
Fno<o by fcrin Mizelie tor the Winston-balem Chronicle
The City Council meeting on Monday, May 4, in downtown Winston-Salem
draws a large crowd of the community with a vested interest in the placement of
the homeless shelter.
IMMIGRANTS IN FORSYTH COUNTY
Photo by Erin Mkelle for the Winston-Salem Chronicle
Pauline Morris with the International Center of Forsyth Tech talks about the ideas generated
throughout her group discussion.
Foreign-born
residents have their
say in integrated
communities plan
BY TODD LUCK
THE CHRONICLE
Building Integrated Communities held a meeting
for foreign-bom residents to air their issues last
Thursday, April 30, at Goodwill Industries on
University Parkway.
? The meeting drew more than 150 attendees who
divided into groups to list problems that foreign-bom
residents face.
BIC is a program by the University of North
Carolina Latino Migration Project that partners with
local governments to try assess to the needs of immi
grant populations and create action plans to help them.
"We are trying to come up with a way to bridge the
gap between all immigrant communities in Winston
Salem," said Wanda Allen-Abraha, head of the Human
Relations Department thai* BIC is partnering with ,
locally.
BIC, which started its local work last spring, pre
Source: BIC THE CHRONICLE
sented research it had already done on the area, which
Hannah Gill, director of the Latino Migration Project,
first relayed in English and Jessicalee White, BIC
researcher & program coordinator, translated for
See Immigrants on A2
Foreign born residents of
Forsyth County 2008-2012
, ? Latin America (22,236) ? Asia (5,674) ? Europe (2.724)
? Africa (1,012) ? Northern America (427)
City to expand
original testing
boundary near
toxic schools
BY CHANEL DAVIS
THE CHRONICLE
Residents in the Hanes-Lowrance community received
a letter last week informing them that the City of Winston
Salem will be expanding its scope into potential ground
water contamination in the area.
The letter, signed by Stormwater/Erosion Control
Director Keith Huff, said that "based upon raw laboratory
results, the city has decided to expand environmental
assessment activities to the south and west of the original
six block area."
On March 31, a meeting was held at the Hanes
Hosiery Recreation Center to discuss groundwater pollu
tion stemming from the Kaba Ilco facility on Indiana
Avenue. The pollution is believed to have contributed to
the removal of students at Hanes and Lowrance Middle
Schools by the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County School
Board. Since seeing the children moved, neighbors
became concerned about their own safety.
Huff said that the preliminary data has warranted the
city to believe the pollution plume may go farther than
shown in the last-measured 2007 map.
"We have put our initial wells in and some of the
southwestern wells, mainly well five and well eight on the
outer perimeter, have come back with detections of
Perchloroethylene (PCE) and Trichloroethylene (TCE) in
them," he said.
Well five is at the comer of 27th and Ivy and well eight
is between 27th and 25th Streets on Ivy.
The new sample boundary lines will be increased to
Glenn Avenue and 24th Street. The city will begin
installing 28 monitoring wells, 14 to sample the area's
groundwater and 14 to sample soil vapor points.
"Part of our goal was to characterize how far the pol
lutant plume has traveled. With this data, clearly it has
traveled farther south and west," Huff said. "All this
means right now is that we are putting more wells in to try
to identify where the groundwater pollution is and what
concentration it's at."
Those wells will not go in until at least June. Results
from this sampling event, named Phase II, are expected to
be available to the public by the end of August 2015.
Huff said that die data doesn't mean there's a health
risk to residents or their property.
"This just means we need to go further to characterize
the extent of the plume," he said. "It doesn't correlate to
there being a health risk in those areas. It just means that
the city is moving further to verify the extent of the
groundwater pollution plume."
See Toxic on A2
Taking root: Community Gardens grow across the city
BY CHANEL DAVIS
THE CHRONICLE
Potential green thumbs and the need to harvest
groceries have grown over the years, resulting in
community and urban gardens across the nation.
Winston-Salem is no different.
Community gardens can include gardens that
are at schools, churches, in a neighborhood or in
urban areas like an alley or rooftop, according to
Alison Duncan, community gardening coordinator
for Forsyth County's Cooperative Extension.
"It's a garden where people are coming togeth
er to grow vegetables and flowers, along with
working collaboratively," she said. "We have seen
a huge increase in community gardens in the coun
ty."
And more are expected in the city after the City
Council passed the Urban Agriculture ordinance
Monday night. May 4.
"That's going to be a real boom for community
gardens. It's.going to be a great thing because that
will allow community gardener's to grow food on,
what is technically illegal for them to grow on,
vacant lots that are not accessory to other build
ings," Duncan said. "This will remove that
requirement. That's going to be a real positive
thing."
As of Friday, May 1, the city now has 134 gar
dens, up from 43 in 2010, and another 20 to 30 gar
dens in the organizational stage, which Duncan
said she is proud of.
"It's awesome."
She said that they can be attributed to the faith
community addressing food insecurities.
See Gardens on A2
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