To the editor: I had attended the Wake Forest Commissioner Meeting last week because I wanted to speak about another issue. During the meeting I listened to the Commissioners describe the contacts that residents’ have had with them about the 40 proposed townhomes on N. Main Street. Many of the comments were not appropriate and some were absolutely uncalled for. I have known the mayor and three of the commissioners for the better part of a decade and I do not for one second believes that any of them are corrupt including the two I do not know very well. I do however understand why people are being uncivil in a situation like this and I am not sure if the commissioners actually do. I also understand why people would call them corrupt. They are wrong, but I understand their reasoning and hopefully the commissioners will heed my advice on future votes so

Wake Forest Area Chamber of Commerce President Ann Welton said this week several hundred of the 1,500 available tickets in the Community Raffle are still unsold “and we would appreciate anyone in the community who has not purchased one (or more) to help with this worthy cause! “We’re running a special. Buy three, get one FREE! (Four tickets for $150).” The top prize is $10,000 in cash and there are 15 other prizes. The drawing for all the prizes will be held Saturday, May 5, during Meet in the Street. It will be held on the main stage just before the final band plays, probably around 3 p.m. You do not have to be present to win. Proceeds from the raffle will support the chamber’s small business programs and $5,000 will go to Tri-Area Ministry Food Pantry. You must be 18 or older to participate. The raffle is a joint

May is Building Safety Month, Electrical Safety Month and Deck Safety Month, and the Wake Forest Inspections Department is launching these observances with a Building, Electrical & Deck Safety Month Kick-Off on Saturday, April 28. The free event will take place from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Town & Country Hardware, 910 Gateway Commons Circle. The kick-off event will include free hot dogs (while they last), games and prizes. Inspections staff will also be on hand throughout the occasion to answer questions about building, electrical and deck safety and the building permit process. Area residents are invited to come out and learn about the services the department offers, including Online Plan Review and Express Residential Plan Review. Attendees may also talk one-on-one with town inspectors about building safety, codes and inspections as they pertain to common residential projects, such as decks, kitchen and bath remodels, and screened porches. In addition

The annual Wake Forest Cemetery Walking Tour, which will be held this year on Saturday, May 12, from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., offers unique insight into the lives of Wake Forest residents from past generations. Docents will be stationed at various family plots throughout the cemetery to share interesting stories about specific gravesites, as well as small artifacts and photographs of loved ones bearing their ancestral names. Representatives of the Wake Forest Junior ROTC, under the direction of Colonel Dimitri Belmont, will appear as color guard in the opening ceremony. The JROTC will also provide parking and other assistance. Parents are encouraged to bring their children. This year there will be a special children’s hand-out highlighting interesting artifacts on the grounds. Designed for interaction between a child and their parents or accompanying adult, the photos and sites will help educate them about the historical significance of the cemetery as they locate significant places

Raleigh novelist Elaine Neil Orr will visit Page 158 Books in Wake Forest’s Renaissance Plaza on Brooks Street at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, April 26, for an evening of reading and conversation about her new novel, Swimming Between Worlds. Orr, the critically acclaimed writer of A Different Sun brings readers a Southern coming-of-age novel that sets three very different young people against the tumultuous years of the American civil rights movement. Tacker Hart left his home in North Carolina as a local high school football hero, but returns in disgrace after being fired from a prestigious architectural assignment in West Africa. Yet the culture and people he grew to admire have left their mark on him. Adrift, he manages his father’s grocery store and becomes reacquainted with a girl he barely knew growing up. Kate Monroe’s parents have died, leaving her the family home and the right connections in her Southern town. But a