Chief Finance Officer Aileen Staples presented the 2021-2022 budget highlights at the beginning of the Wake Forest Town Board’s work session Tuesday evening:
*The property tax base is now $7,024,269,900, a 3.5 percent increase over last year,
*The town’s share of the local and state sales tax increased 8 percent over last year,
*New positions in the town include a fulltime town attorney with a parttime paralegal in a new department, a safety coordinator, and eight new positions in the police department including two shift supervisors for telecommunications, one new detective for background checks, four new community engagement officers and one victim advocate.
*It includes increased fees in the planning and engineering departments; an increase in event fees; and an increase in the residential electric rates. The electric rate increase is included in the budget but Staples recommended, when she unveiled the results of a rate study that the increase not take effect until September. The increase for an average bill with 900 kilowatts used would be $5.28. (The rate increase is in an article in the April 28, 2021 edition of the Wake Forest Gazette.)
Staples said the town has not received the first half of the $13.3 million expected from the American Recovery Act. She recommended if the first half is not in the town’s hands by the end of June that they set up a special fund for the money. The second half is expected about this time next year.
Dylan Bruchhaus with the planning department talked about the recently-completed study by CAMPO (Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization) for the Northeast area that includes Wake, Franklin and other counties and urged the commissioners to endorse the funding of the study’s findings.
Courtney Tanner, head of the town’s planning department, said the planning board members have other responsibilities than the monthly meetings with public hearings and decisions about zoning and master plans. “They are here to help with the planning process,” and she said that for any of the nine members not to attend the workshops and other meetings about other aspects of planning is a disservice.
Tanner was there to introduce the draft of the Planning Board Handbook, which covers all aspects of their appointment.
It also is the first recognition that the planning board will have seven members in the future, not nine. Since one member is resigning because of a move – Karlene Turrentine – there is the need for another current member to be dropped. The name of Jim Stephanadis was suggested subject to discussion and a vote by the commissioners on June 15.
Beginning in July, the schedule for meetings of the town board and planning board will be:
*First Tuesday of the month – 6 p.m. – work session for the town board
*First Tuesday – 7:30 p.m. – joint public hearings for planning matters
*Second Tuesday – 6 p.m. – business meeting of the planning board
*Third Tuesday – 6 p.m. – business meeting of the town board
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