A short board meeting with little action

Tuesday evening the Wake Forest Town Board met with almost nothing on its agenda, and the proclamations – proclaiming Earth Day, recognizing Arbor Day and Building Safety Week and Professional Municipal Clerks Week – took almost as much time as the rest of the proceedings.
Noticeable was the proclamation for St. Baldrick’s Day, because of what it has done in Wake Forest. The charity, which does include shaving one’s head (voluntary), was begun in New York City in 2000 to raise money for the most promising childhood cancer research.
It reached Wake Forest in 2008 when volunteers and staff at O’Dwyer’s Irish Pub organized to give kids the healthy childhoods they need and deserve.
Since then, Tommy Murray said, the group has raised over $1.3 million for the research. Also the St. Baldrick’s Foundation has awarded more than $12 million to North Carolina research institutions including the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Duke University Medical Center.
There was a public hearing about closing a small section of the right-of-way for Caddell Street that was purchased by the town when it reconstructed Caddell from a dirt street to one with two paved traffic lanes with sidewalks and the appropriate signage. As a result, Habitat for Humanity of Wake County built houses there along with private housing. The land in question looks like a skinny banana on a string following the bellied curve of the street.
A man who said he was a lawyer and may have been representing the soon-to-open Wake Forest Food Hall (built for S&W Chevrolet) went to the podium and was soon followed by two women separately who obviously had questions about the land. No one knows what was said because none of the three spoke into the microphone.
Mayor Vivian Jones tried to straighten things out, saying there will be no changes to the road and “It’s land that’s just sitting there.” As the women talked to the man, the mayor kept asking if they were satisfied with the answers, and apparently everyone was. The area will be graded and paved for the parking lot for the food hall after it is purchased.
The Reverend Ken Steigler, representing the National Day of Prayer in Wake Forest asked that the town support the event.
The commissioners – Chad Sary was absent and Jim Dyer came in late – were able to vote on the consent agenda, thereby amending the current budget, accepting more completed streets for town maintenance, appointing Violanie Romans-Murray to the Public Art Commission and Felecia Roberts and Sarah Seaman to the Parks, Recreational & Cultural Resources Board.
During the remarks by the commissioners, Jones said some of the county commissioners came to the regular meeting Wake County mayors hold to say they want to partner with the towns and provide support and the aide of technical support as the towns tackle the affordable housing problem. This will obviously need further discussion but there was none Tuesday.
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