Tuesday evening Wake Forest Fire Chief Ron Early and Police Chief Jeff Leonard put on a little two-man show, describing how police and fire vehicles can barely squeeze through streets with parked vehicles which are not near the curb. The problem is that new fire trucks are wider and police SUVs are larger.
They were urging that minimum travel lanes on new and rebuilt roads be widened from 11 to 12 feet for safety reasons. Currently, Early said, the parked vehicles “slows down drastically our ability to get through safely without hitting anyone.” The change to 12 feet “will make a drastic difference in how we are able to respond to an emergency.”
Mayor Vivian Jones began by saying, “I’m not in favor of widening streets any more than necessary” because narrower roads mean slower traffic which is safer. However, after hearing from the two chiefs, she said she was convinced about the change from 11 to 12.
In other items, the town board unanimously approved the rezoning of three parcels on South Main Street which will allow for an unnamed developer to proceed with building an unnamed residential care facility. Longleaf Law Partners asked for the rezoning to general residential GR3 that will also correct a town mapping error. The land in question is just south of Lidl. It was the Clara Webb property before her death.
They also held a public hearing and then approved the sale of $1.29 million of bonds from the 2014 referendum for street and sidewalk improvements.
Wake Forest Police Lieutenant Larry L. Daniel was recognized as he retired after 18 years of service.
The board agreed to cancel their work session on April 6 and begin the joint public hearing they hold with the planning board at 5:30 p.m. on April 6. The commissioners have nothing scheduled for that meeting and the planning board agenda is a long one. This is a one-time scheduling change.
Senior Planner Kari Grace explained how state law 160D is changing the town’s development standards for buildings, landscape buffers and screening. In future, notice to nearby residents about zoning changes will be send out to those within 500 rather than 100 feet. Another change will require large religious institutions to be on collector streets, and schools may be required to be on a collector street, although the details have not been worked out on that.
The commissioners and mayor went into a closed session with town attorney Eric Vernon to discuss negotiating price or other terms of a contract to buy some property or the compensation or contract terms for an employee.
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2 Responses
I’m not sure why we need a bunch of big SUVs for police vehicles. We aren’t in the great white north. It might snow once or twice in a given year. They need to ne using electric vehicles. Perfect for patrolling, saves our tax dollars, and great for the environment. We need to walk the walk.
EV range is dependant on how the vehicle is driven. In general EVs have short ranges compared to fossil-fuel powered vehicles. Add the additional weight & power required for a law enforcement vehicle (ballistics plate in seatbacks, lighting, physical narriers, MDT, etc.) to typical usage patterns (lots of hard acceleration, extended idling times, etc.) and EVs just don’t meet LE patrol/pursuit needs. Last thing anybody wants is for an EV cruiser to run out of juice when responding to a home invasion or other time-sensitive crime-in-progress where human life is at risk.