The Wake Forest Police Department is encouraging area residents, neighborhood groups and homeowners’ associations to show their support for police-community crime prevention partnerships by attending this year’s National Night Out (NNO) on Monday, Oct. 2. The department is marking this special occasion by hosting a National Night Out Parking Lot Party from 5 to 7:30 p.m. in the parking lot of the Wake Forest Renaissance Centre at 405 Brooks Street. The free event promises something for everyone, including a DJ, food and special prizes, and fire, police, and EMS vehicle displays, along with a variety of booths highlighting crime prevention and safety. Wake Forest Police officers will be on hand distributing information on topics such as vehicle security, home security, and personal safety. The police department will also offer a K-9 demonstration and D.A.R.E. presentation and share information on Neighborhood Watch, Special Olympics and much more. NNO teams law enforcement

After working in two Florida towns for 11 days to restore power after Hurricane Irma, Public Works & Utilities Director Mike Barton and an 11-man crew returned to Wake Forest Friday, Sept. 22, pleased that they had done so much for Bartow and Lakeland residents and pleasantly surprised by the response of those residents. “We were treated the best of any storm I have ever worked,” Barton said in an email this week. “In Bartow, residents came out in droves with drinks, snacks, ice, toiletries and businesses were fighting to provide meals for all the linemen. One resident put on a BBQ event for relief workers for dinners one day and lunch and dinner the next, In Lakeland, we were offered drinks, snacks and ice.” The Wake Forest crew, with all the other crews from North Carolina public power towns, got all the lights on in the two towns. “When

The Rockin’ the Forest music series resumes on Saturday, Oct. 7, at 8 p.m. with The Luxuriant Sedans in the Wake Forest Renaissance Centre for the Arts at 405 Brooks Street. The Luxuriant Sedans hail from the fertile musical stomping grounds of the North Carolina Piedmont. The band’s five members – Mike “Wezo” Wesolowski (vocals, harp); Ed Bumgardner (bass, vocals); Rob Slater (guitar); Gino “Woo Funk” Grandinetti (guitar) and Bob Tarleton (drums) – are veteran musicians with experience in myriad musical genres, from alternative music to country-rock to jazz, vintage soul and rock ‘n’ roll in all its forms and guises. The common ground for their backgrounds is blues, but The Luxuriant Sedans is no typical fedora-wearing, licks-off-of-records blues band. Rather, the band’s deep musical versatility takes the blue soul in its music and adds an element of rock ‘n’ roll energy that celebrates taste and individuality. For more information

During August the Wake Forest Inspections Department (now a part of the Community Development Department) approved a permit for a new SunTrust Bank that will be built at 13620 Capital Boulevard, an outparcel at the Harris Crossing shopping center. Benton/Potter Construction Services will build the bank and paid $24,923.65 in fees for a building of 3,308 square feet that will have an estimated value of $1.85 million. The department also issued permits for 68 single-family homes and 13 townhouses. Fit-ups were approved for Blooming Baby at 3117 Rogers Road in Heritage Professional Center West and China Fuji at 1040 Forestville Road, the Shoppes at Heritage Village shopping center anchored by Publix. In addition, there were fit-ups approved for the several Duke medical practices and associated uses for the new two-story steel building under construction at 3000 Rogers Road just west of the CSX rail line: Duke Urgent Care, Duke CLIAA,

Area residents are invited to the 23rd Wake Forest Memorial Flag-Raising Ceremony on Monday, Oct. 2, at 11 a.m. The program will take place in Centennial Plaza in front of the Wake Forest Town Hall at 301 Brooks Street. The Oct. 2 service will honor Jerry Meiselman, who served his nation in the U.S. Army. Members of Meiselman’s family will participate in the ceremony, which will include patriotic songs, special remarks, a memorial wreath laying and the ceremonial flag-raising. Following the raising of the American flag, the U.S. Army service flag will be raised in recognition of the military branch in which Meiselman served. Both flags will fly in Centennial Plaza throughout October. Photographs and other remembrances of Meiselman will also be displayed in Centennial Plaza during the ceremony, then in the Town Hall lobby through the end of the month. Presented by several local veterans’ organizations to honor the