Several local churches and community organizations will sponsor a free public celebration honoring the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on Thursday, Jan. 18. The event will take place at Friendship Chapel Baptist Church, 237 Friendship Chapel Road. Area residents are invited to attend the observance, beginning with a light meal at 6 p.m. followed by the program at 7 p.m. The evening’s theme will center around one of Dr. King’s messages: “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” In the spirit of the event theme, the Martin Luther King Committee is offering creative performance, writing and art competitions for students in Wake Forest and Rolesville area schools. The competition winners will be recognized during the program. Two $500 scholarships will be awarded to local graduating seniors. Local groups contributing to the celebration include the Wake Forest Human Relations Council,

Tuesday night the Wake Forest commissioners approved a new fee schedule for the planning process, and for the first time including the work done by the historic preservation commission and its staff person, where previously there had been no fees. Those new fees are $200 for a demolition certificate of approval (COA), $25 for a minor COA, $50 for a major COA, $100 for a major COA with additions or new construction, $25 for a re-review for a time extension, and $500 for a grave removal or relocation. Brendie Vega, the assistant director of the community development department, was the person who instituted the changes in the fee schedule. She told the commissioners in December she saw that development in Wake Forest was cheap, based on the fees charged. The new fees for the planning and engineering departments will go into effect March 1 Vega said this week “in order

A presentation about services for seniors in Wake Forest will be held Friday, Jan. 26, from 8:30 to 10 a.m. in the ground floor meeting room in town hall that is best reached through the South Taylor Street entrance. Town Manager Kip Padgett will speak about the “Dementia Capable” community initiative adopted by the town and the various programs the town sponsors for seniors along with updates about the expansion of the Northern Wake Senior Center (owned by the town) that is now underway. Corey Hutcherson, the vice president of community relations at the Wake Forest Area Chamber of Commerce, will provide demographic statistics about growth in the town’s senior population. The free program is sponsored by SING-WF – Senior Information & Networking Group – and the breakfast is sponsored by Perkins Counseling & Psychological Services. Arrive early to eat and have a cup of coffee. Registration is required. Call

On Sunday, Jan. 21, the title of the program hosted by the Wake Forest Historical Association will be The Bootleg Economy: Surviving the ‘50s, an unusual slant on the illegal liquor produced in the Harricanes area outside Wake Forest. The moonshiners worked their stills to feed their families at a time when electricity – Wake Electric – and paved roads were beginning to change the landscape and the culture. There will be a lot of information and stories, maybe some tall tales, about the men on both sides of the law – almost all of them long gone – told by men such as Ryan Keith, a photographer and cameraman at WRAL-TV who was called out frequently by local, state and federal officers who wanted publicity about their raids and the stills they destroyed. The event at the Wake Forest Historical Museum in the 400 block of North Main Street

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