Wake Forest with its accessible greenways along with more and more marked bike lanes is now giving bicyclists repair stations. There will be two bike repair stations by the end of May.
The first bike repair station has been installed on Brooks Street near Norse Brewing and sports a “FIXIT” sign. The second will be installed at 541 South White Street near the town dumpster enclosure and the elevated water tank. It will be easily accessible from the sidewalk.
The stations come complete with a set of basic tools securely fastened to the repair stand cyclists can use to make repairs and adjustments. Plus, a QR code is provided on the station which cyclists can scan to view repair instructions (https://www.dero.com/bike-repair/).
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Gazette readers may remember that the town board passed an ordinance last year which requires owners of vacant stores in the Renaissance Area to install window displays in their street level buildings to combat the negative effect downtown visitors might feel if they see papered-over or vacant space in those windows. The ordinance is now in effect, and the Gazette asked Jennifer Herbert, the downtown development manager, how it is going.
“Vacant window ordinance implementation and tracking are going well, but we have not quite achieved 100 percent compliance due to the fact that some property is currently contingent and/or has recently taken on new ownership. The good news is I have had productive conversations with all the property owners, and we are working together towards compliance,” Herbert said.
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Gazette readers will also remember we have written about the Wake Forest Christmas Party which for years featured a large tree decorated by Marie Joyner with the ornaments she made of household items or junk, like empty sardine cans. She had a knack and everyone admired how she literally turned a pig’s ear into a satin purse.
Jean McCamy remembered that Bobbie Osborne always made the mints on the table. “Helen Hollowell was a big player in the tea and did a lot with refreshments, decorations and gift wrapping ideas. Daddy (Nurney Bond) always did magic tricks for the children. There was a plan afoot to recreate one of Marie’s trees, but then her house and the decorations burned so it never happened.”
In reminiscing about the party, Jean also mentioned the town picnic on the Esley Forbes farm. There used to be a town picnic? And why on the Forbes farm?
Before all our memory banks get older, can anyone else remember the picnic or more about the tea? We can’t recreate the picnic – the Forbes farm is now partly the Reynold Mill subdivision, Wegmans grocery store and the Grove 98 residential and commercial subdivision along the N.C. 98 Bypass – but we might try a 2021 or 2022 version at Joyner Park.
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In the April Wake Forest Town Manager’s report, there was a comment from Carrie Mitchell, an environmental engineer in the Engineering section of the Public Works Department about a conference call with the NC Department of Environmental Quality to discuss recommendations about the lagoon closures at the former G.G. Hill Water Treatment Plant.
Those lagoons, concrete ponds for water in its different stages of treatment, now hold rain water.
“The City of Raleigh completed a partial decommission of the plant several years ago,” Mitchell wrote in answer to an email asking for further details. “The Town is considering options that include demolition and removal of the water treatment plant.
“In additions to the water treatment plant, the reservoir project consists of rehabilitating the dam and making improvements to the property. The Town’s Capital Improvements Program states that improvements will consist of paved parking, new boat ramp, dock, facilities, concession amenities, etc.”
And, “Raleigh Water has no intention of using the reservoir as a backup water supply.”
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