The Town of Wake Forest is recruiting Adopt-A-Stream volunteers to help keep the town’s streams healthy. The initiative offers residents the opportunity to become involved in an environmental effort that helps protect our natural resources, therefore improving water quality and stream habitats. Anyone with an interest in healthy streams and the outdoors is invited to participate. To adopt a stream, individuals or groups agree to perform one of the following tasks on a section of stream for one year: water quality monitoring; stream clean-up; stream repair and planting; or drain labeling. Water quality monitors make observations and record what they see in their section of stream. Monitors work from a field data sheet and make monthly observations of algae, insect life, stream bank conditions, appearance of water, odors and stream flow. They also collect data using monitoring kits. Stream clean-up participants agree to organize at least two stream clean-ups in

The Town of Wake Forest is accepting applications for the 2020 Citizens Planning Academy through noon on Monday, March 2. The Citizens Planning Academy (CPA) is designed to educate residents of Wake Forest and its extraterritorial jurisdiction (ETJ) about the Town’s planning processes and practices. CPA topics will emphasize public hearings procedures, legislative and quasi-judicial decisions, the Unified Development Ordinance (UDO), transportation planning, historic preservation, architectural review and more. Applications must be completed and submitted online by visiting http://bit.ly/WFCitizensPlanningAcademy. Anyone without access to a computer is invited to complete the application by using a computer kiosk in the lobby of Town Hall, 301 S. Brooks St. Only residents of Wake Forest and the Town’s ETJ are eligible to participate. Academy participants will be expected to attend a total of three training sessions over a six-week period from April through May 2020. This year’s sessions are scheduled on the following Mondays: April

The latest list of legislative and quasi-judicial public hearings before the town board and planning board updated on January 28 by Jennifer Currin, manager of the Development Department, says the large Averette subdivision will be heard in March. This will be the second public hearing. The first was on Oct. 1, when the planning board voted seven to one not to recommend approval of the large project planned for 677 single-family homes and 288 townhouses on two-lane roads. Many neighbors objected to the plan. The town commissioners punted on Oct. 15, continuing questions about the annexation, rezoning and master plan until November. The applicant requested a new hearing in which they would submit revised plans. According to that new schedule, the planning board will also hear the request for the Cottages at Cardinal Hills and an amendment for the Everly subdivision on Stephen Taylor Road in Franklin County in March.

The following is a list of how organizations and individuals are working to assure people in and near Wake Forest have food on their table or have a place to get a meal. ** Feed the Community Food Distribution has a food distribution every fourth Saturday, and the next one will be on Feb. 28. It is sponsored by the Northeast Community Coalition and Tri-Area Ministry, and the distribution is from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at Spring Street Christian Church, 320 East Spring Street, Wake Forest. You must bring proof you live in Wake County. You can give signed permission for someone else to pick up food for you. If you are unable to get to the church, call Tee Caudle at 919-271-1275 to be registered in advance. ** Wake Forest Baptist Church and the InterFaith Food Shuttle offer a monthly Mobile Market, distributing groceries, including lots of fresh

A few seats are still available for the Wake Forest Parks, Recreation & Cultural Resources Department’s Mother-Daughter Tea on Saturday, Feb. 22. This special occasion is scheduled from 10 to 11:30 a.m. at the Joyner Park Community Center, 701 Harris Road. Mothers and daughters (ages 3 and older) throughout Wake Forest are invited to wear their tea dresses, big floppy hats and best gloves – but none is mandatory! Enjoy tea cakes, little scones, bite-sized cookies and tea and enjoy a fun time of tea and bonding. The cost is $20 per couple for Wake Forest residents and $35/couple for non-Wake Forest residents, plus $5 for each additional daughter. To register, visit http://wakeforestnc.recdesk.com/recdeskportal/. #