After a start to the meeting that was perhaps two or three minutes past 7 p.m., Mayor Vivian Jones declared the Jan. 17 Wake Forest Town Board meeting adjourned at 7:21. If this did not set a record for the shortest town board meeting, it has to be close.
During those 19-some minutes, the commissioners:
* approved all four requests heard in joint public hearings with the Wake Forest Planning Board on Jan. 3 – a 100-lot townhouse development on 19.71 acres at the intersection of Traditions Grande Boulevard and Royal Mill Avenue to be called the Willows at Traditions; a seven-lot commercial subdivision on 13.96 acres at the intersection of Durham Road and Dr. Calvin Jones Highway (N.C. 98 Bypass to be called Crenshaw Corners; a request to exceed the town limit of three stories for a four-story hotel on 2.189 acres at 1005 Stadium Drive in the Wake Forest Crossing shopping center; and a request by David B. Alford to rezone the empty 1.67 acres at 844 South Main Street from neighborhood business to general residential.
* approved two requests to serve alcohol on South White Street made by Dino Radosta of White Street Brewing Co. for Oktoberfest on Oct. 7 and White Street Barbeque Experience on March 10 and by Downtown Director Lisa Hayes for the 2017 Friday Night on White, April through September. Commissioner Greg Harrington voted no on both alcohol requests.
* agreed on Commissioner Jim Thompson as mayor pro tem
* recognized Vernon “Donald” Cooke on his retirement after 16 years with Wake Forest Power
* appointed four people to the Urban Forestry Advisory Board – Suzanne Beaumont, Mindy Hidenfelter, Martina Lattimore an Le’Anna Stephens
*approved a contract with Freese and Nichols for $131,000 to design the improvements to the Flaherty Park dam
* agreed on the committee appointments for the five commissioners, who serve as liaisons to the town’s advisory boards and commissions.
It might be noted that some of the above items were approved together as part of the consent agenda.
At the end of the meeting, Jones said she had been a speaker at the Wake County State of the Arts event last week where she told the group about the Renaissance Centre and its programs and how the town received a county grant for major renovations. Present were several past Piedmont laureates who she spoke to and made some plans for a literary festival at the center.
Town Manager Kip Padgett gave the board members a preliminary agenda for the annual town board planning retreat on Friday, Jan. 27, which will be held at the Alston-Massenburg Center on Taylor Street beginning at 8:30 a.m.
One Response
Thank you, Commissioners, for excluding more families from Downtown events. Do you really think we want our children to witness public drunkenness? To have a child get drenched in beer because someone stumbled while carrying it and spilled it on the child? Why do you feel it’s appropriate or necessary to include alcohol at public events? Just as many people participate in the events when there’s NOT alcohol. And why add to the police department’s load–they already have to deal with crowd control, traffic, and the potential for other event-related issues, and you decide to throw inebriation into the mix. If folks have to drink, there’s (unfortunately) a bar downtown now. Let them go there.
It’s so sad to watch the town I grew up in and felt safe letting my kids grow up in become just another place following the beer garden crowd. I’m glad there’s at least one Commissioner with the decency to stand up and say NO. Thank you, Chief Harrington!