News – Page 7 – Salem Main Streets

Salem Salutes Itself with Community Service Awards

Contests, History, New Businesses, Salem Dining, Salem Event, Salem Shopping No Responses »

Apr 262015

Who are the “best of the best” when it comes to business & community activity over the past year in Salem Ma? The Salem Chamber of Commerce asked residents to select from 36 nominees in six categories. Over 1900 people responded.

Awards were handed out at the 93rd annual Celebrate Salem Awards Dinner, on April 22at the Peabody Essex Museum.

2014 Businesswoman of the Year: Brandi Dion – B&S Fitness Companies & CrossFit IronSpider

Businesswoman of the Year is a Chamber member who has demonstrated excellence in business practices throughout the year and has demonstrated a sincere commitment to Salem.

B&S Fitness Companies’ goal is to improve the quality of life and health for every customer through innovative and effective fitness programs. CrossFit IronSpider is a fitness community dedicated to helping everyone achieve their individual goals within an inspiring group setting. In addition to fitness programs, B&S offers event management which raises and donates over $50k each year to non-profit organizations.

2014 Businessman of the Year: Paul Van Ness – CinemaSalem, Salem Film Fest, The Cabot, Van Ness Creative

Businessman of the Year is a Chamber member who has demonstrated excellence in business practices throughout the year and has demonstrated a sincere commitment to Salem.

CinemaSalem is more than a film-lover’s movie theater; it’s also a café, an art gallery, an art house, a live music venue, and a home Salem Film Fest, one of America’s largest all-documentary film festivals. Van Ness and a group of investors recently acquired The Cabot in Beverly, MA. Van Ness Creative is a full-service film and video production company

2014 New Business of the Year: The Ugly Mug Diner

The New Business of the Year award is given to the best new business that opened in 2014.

The Ugly Mug Diner is a twisted American Diner in the heart of Salem. A foodie haven, serving beer, bacon and espresso, with a soda jerk, hand cut fries, and biscuits with red gravy.

The 2014 Excellence in Retail Award: Milk & Honey Green Grocer

The Excellence in Retail Award showcases the outstanding achievements of Salem retailers and will be awarded to the retailer that applies superior knowledge, creativity and industry know-how to develop innovative strategies, and contributes to the growth of the Salem retail sector.

Milk & Honey Green Grocer is the local grocery store for people who care about the environment, community, and sustainability. Offering residents of the North Shore carefully selected products of the highest quality.

The 2014 Community Service Award: Creative Salem

The Community Service Award is awarded to a member or organization who has an outstanding record of community service and volunteer participation.

Creative Salem celebrates the city of Salem as a hub of creativity, providing contemporary tools for local creative professionals to find and connect with new audiences while encouraging them to apply their skills to help solve challenges facing the community.

The 2014 Long-Term Achievement Award: Jim & Nancy Hurrell (Salem Trolley, Pirate Museum, Witch History Museum, Witch Dungeon)

The Long-Term Achievement Award is given to a business that has achieved 10 or more years of success in the community.

Witch History Museum: The stories of 1692 told through a historically accurate live presentation and tour. Witch Dungeon Museum: An award winning reenactment of the trial of beggar-woman Sarah Good – from the original transcript of 1692. Salem Pirate Museum: The unique and little-known history of New England sea-robbers comes alive at the Pirate Museum. The Salem Trolley provides visitors with a narrated one hour tour and all day shuttle service through beautiful and historic Salem.

This year, winners received an original wood sculpture created by Tommy Gagnon of Boston Woodturning.

For more information on the event or the Salem Chamber please visit www.salem-chamber.org or call 978-744-0004.

Salem Cable Replacement Project Getting Underway

History, Salem Event, Salem Shopping, Uncategorized No Responses »

Mar 102015

It’s been said there is a great deal of history buried within the bricks and cobblestones of Salem, MA. Some of it good, some not so good, and some just the kind that needs to be updated. National Grid will be working to replace two aging underground electric transmission lines, located through a small stretch of Salem. These lines transmit electricity used by hundreds of thousands of residents and businesses in Salem and throughout the North Shore.

This of course means a slight bit of inconvenience to motorists driving and parking in the City.

A small number of “no parking” signs will be posted in advance of construction, and those restrictions will remain in effect until construction is complete for that day. Police details and signs will always be present to assist everyone through the work zone and to facilitate traffic management.

The Salem Cable Replacement Project will install new cables in a duct bank and manhole system, which will eliminate the need to dig up Salem streets for regular repairs. The new, modern cables will also address capacity limitations and maintenance issues with the current system.

The weekday work hours for the Salem Cable Project are 7 am to 4:30 pm (which includes the last hour given over to work site clean-up),

The first two work sites for the project, beginning on/or around March 11: Hawthorne Boulevard, just north of the Derby Street intersection, and Congress Street, on the north side of the South River Bridge.

Hawthorne Boulevard : contractors will be installing a large manhole. This work is expected to last for approximately two weeks, weather permitting.
Congress Street : contractors will begin installing the duct bank that will house the new underground electrical transmission cable. This installation will continue northward, towards Derby Street, ending at the newly installed manhole described above. Due to the nature of this type of work, it is estimated to be completed in five to six weeks, weather permitting.

Also, during the construction activities, one National Grid Gas crew will be finishing gas line installations on Hawthorne Boulevard between Derby Street and Washington Square South; and along Congress Street, on the north side of the Congress Street Bridge.

A project map including the approximate location for the Hawthorne Boulevard and Congress Street work sites is available on their website’s Blog: www.salemcableproject.com/blog .

In fact, to stay up-to-date on each phase of the Salem Cable Replacement Project, just sign up for email updates, like it on Facebook, and to follow on Twitter and Instagram. You can also call the toll-free hotline at 1-844-SALEMCABLE (1-844-725-3622).

And the Nominees for the Best Salem Film Fest Windows Are…

Contests, Salem Event, Salem Festivals, SMS News No Responses »

Feb 242015

With the Oscars out of the way, you can now focus up close and personal on the Salem Film Fest (March 5-12). Entering its eighth year, Salem Film Fest is one of New England’s largest documentary film festivals; it attracts submissions and attendees from all over the world.

We’ll have more on the SFF in an upcoming blog, but if you want a sampling of SFF, Creative Salem produced an Oscar worthy profile page. But there is a visual problem with being the home of SFF, and we’ve come up with a solution that requires your assistance.

“The only drawback of a festival like Salem Film Fest,” explains Kylie Sullivan, Salem Main Streets Manager, “is that, by necessity, the vast majority of the action happens behind closed doors. The Film Fest gets bigger and better every year, but sometimes it’s hard to see that if you’re just walking down the street.”

She continues, “Therefore, we started the Film Fest window decorations last year because we wanted people to walk into town and KNOW that there was a film festival in town! In addition, we have many filmmakers and guests from out of town who are exploring the city for the first time during the festival. The Salem community gets so excited for this festival, and we wanted to have a visual representation of that excitement to welcome our visitors.”

Merchants, if you’ve got a downtown storefront window, we want to see your best film-inspired window! While the festival focuses on documentaries, your window does not have to be documentary-specific (windows inspired by Casablanca, Gone With the Wind, or The Avengers are absolutely encouraged).

This year, we will have a jury select a winning window. The winner of the competition will become the underwriter of a single film for the 2016 Salem Film Fest ($300 value)!

As a sign that this is indeed a group effort, if you need some inspiration or materials, Paul Van Ness of CinemaSalem will again be donating old celluloid film and film reels (and popcorn!) to anyone who wants to decorate a window. Stop by the Main Streets / Chamber offices at 265 Essex any time after 12:30 pm for film, popcorn, and Salem Film Fest posters (while they last)!

Participating businesses must notify Salem Main Streets of their interest and have window decorations completed by Friday, Feb. 27. So don’t delay. Any questions should be sent to kylie@salemmainstreets.org or go old school and call 978-744-0004.

(Photo courtesy of Social Palates)

Open Invitation to Join YOUR Salem Main Streets

Contests, New Businesses, Salem Event, Salem Farmers Market, Salem Festivals, Salem Shopping, SMS News, Volunteer Opportunities No Responses »

Feb 212015

There are many exciting things happening behind the scenes at Salem Main Streets, and we want to bring them to light. So——

You are invited!

Please join us for Salem Main Streets’ Annual Meeting

Tuesday, February 24, 2015
5:30 pm to 7 pm
at the Salem Five Community Room, 210 Essex Street

– Celebrate Salem Main Streets’ (SMS) achievements over the past year
– Learn more about SMS mission and goals for the coming year
– Enjoy an evening with SMS supporters, volunteers, committee members, and constituents

Free
Cash bar and light refreshments
Open to all who live, work, and play in downtown Salem

Explains Kylie Sullivan, SMS Manager, “For many nonprofits, ‘annual meetings’ are primarily a function of the board and those concerned with the administration and governance of the organization. We are throwing the doors wide open for this meeting – inviting all our board and committee members, volunteers, downtown businesses, partners, sponsors, residents, municipal officials and employees, you name it. The message we want to send is that this is YOUR Main Streets and that everyone who cares about the downtown community should feel invested in the operation of Main Streets.”

Frankly no one can remember the last time Main Streets held an annual meeting. It’s time! We have so many great achievements to celebrate and recognize. Yes, we are talking about the Volunteer Booth, and the Farmers’ Market and the Holiday Tree— and so many more. And we are talking about you!

“We have so many great partners involved with Main Streets,” continues Kylie, “and we want them to be able to understand how their contribution fits into the larger Main Streets picture. Many of our partners and volunteers may only be involved with just one part of Main Streets (the info booth, the Farmers’ Market, Salem’s So Sweet) and they don’t really know how it connects to the larger mission and goals for SMS.”

To that end, while there will be a “speaking” portion of the meeting, it will be noticeably short; greater focus will be devoted on mingling with each other and visiting “stations” manned by committee members around the room to learn more about the different aspects of Main Streets and give feedback.

Consider this is to be more an interactive ongoing conversation, rather than a passive presentation.

We look forward to seeing you and listening to your input, and hopefully your participation sometime during the next year with one (or more) of our projects.

(Photo courtesy of Social Palates is of the Hula Art Project, an example of “board and committee members, volunteers, downtown businesses, partners, sponsors, residents, municipal officials and employees,” working together)

Feeling Like a Lumberjack of the North Woods?

Salem Dining No Responses »

Feb 172015

Could they have planned it any better than this? In the midst of one of the most outrageous winter snow seasons we’ve ever seen, the think-tank at the Peabody Essex Museum has scheduled a Lumberjack Party as the theme for this Thursday’s PEM/PM event! This should bring people out of the woodwork (sorry, had to get one pun in there).

Seriously though, the vision is to create an experience of spending a winter night in the North Woods (something we are all feeling) while celebrating the art of trees. And that is inspired by PEM’s Art & Nature Center exhibition “Branching Out: Trees as Art.”

PEM urges you to dig deep to get into the spirit of the event: wear your boots and flannel, then get your photo taken in their Lumberjack Photobooth, complete with beards, axes and other woodsy-themed accessories.

Other highlights of the event include obviously woodworking demonstrations, a Brew Talk with Salem’s From the Tree Cider, and more “timber” related activities; local bearded band, Tigerman WOAH, will provide the perfect backdrop with their Appalachian mountain folk/bluegrass-influenced punk rock with the occasional hip-hop freak-out.

PEM/PM evening parties take place on the 3rd Thursday of each month as a way for PEM to invite, entertain, educate and interact with the local community.

In this case, the current exhibition, “Branching Out: Trees as Art,” explores ways in which contemporary artists use trees as an inspiration as well as a medium for their art. Made with bark, wood, roots, seedpods, leaves and biosignals, more than 30 varied works and a selection of hands-on interactive opportunities ask us to consider our relationship with trees as a vital natural force.

A cash bar will be available, as will a special small plate menu courtesy of the Hawthorne Hotel. Admission to PEM/PM: free of charge for members and Salem residents (bring ID); $10 for non members. The event runs from 6 – 9 pm on Feb. 19 at the Peabody Essex Museum. For more details go to www.pem.org or call 866-745-1876.

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