The Wake Forest town commissioners waffled and questioned and finally kicked the can down the road, deciding not to vote on a teen curfew during Friday Nights on White. The vote to postpone the curfew vote until their June 18 meeting was also divided four to one with Commissioner Nick Sliwinski voting no.
The curfew ordinance would have established an 8 p.m. curfew for unsupervised minors under the age of 18 during Friday Night on White.
Tuesday night’s work session on June 4, 2024, was lengthy — two hours — and filled with facts, beginning with the lengthy PowerPoint about the proposed 2024-2025 budget and its 42-cent tax rate. Michelle Daniels, the budget and performance manager, explained the various parts like the additional $1 on the town’s monthly solid waste fee and the new stormwater fees based on each property’s impervious area.
After the county-wide property revaluation, the town’s tax base has grown by $4 billion to $11,725,317,100. The revenue-neutral tax rate would be $0.346; a list of the town’s new costs — fire station #6 and the public safety warehouse, debt service for the 2022 bond referendum, public safety equipment, the annual cost for an additional 15 firefighters now in training, affordable housing and the inflation in most costs — bringing the total needed to the 42-cent tax rate Town Manager Kip Padgett proposed. The commissioners will vote on the budget and tax rate on June 18.
Commissioner Adam Wright said, “What if we tried to go to 40 cents?” He said that would mean doing away with the town’s affordable housing initiative — half a penny on the tax rate — and a cent and a half of additional cuts. It might mean, he said, doing away with the Easter Egg Hunt at Joyner Park or other celebrations.
“Where do you want those two pennies to come from?” Mayor Vivian Jones asked Wright. “I’m not willing to cut back on services. That’s the price you pay for having a good town.”
Commissioner Nick Sliwinski said the affordable housing initiative was a huge step forward for the town and he was not in favor of cutting it.
Wright kept pushing for cuts in the tax rate — “People will notice when we cut the rate.” — but Sliwinski countered with the argument that delaying needed improvements now would put the town farther behind in three years when there is another revaluation and the necessity of setting a tax rate.
Wright then switched by saying the town does not have the commercial base other towns have and the town has not provided a certified commercial property.
Commissioner Keith Shackleford said he did not want to cut a penny on the tax rate and wants the town “to provide high standards for our people.”
Commissioner Faith Cross asked if the town could cut the rate by using the current fund balance (savings account). Padgett and later Chief Finance Officer/Assistant Town Manager Aileen Staples both said that was not a wise course. The money is to be used for anticipated costs and unanticipated ones.
The commissioners then took up the curfew with Shackleford, who was absent for a curfew discussion in May, saying he would vote against this curfew. He said it seems it is “kids just being kids” and it should be solved “on a different level.” Also, the town should “see how (FNOW) June goes.”
Commissioner Ben Clapsaddle questioned the curfew ordinance, saying “We’re using a hammer to kill a fly.”
The mayor scoffed at that, saying it is a few teenagers making the trouble, “Being rude and obnoxious and have gone into stores” where goods were later found missing. “It gives the police the ability to detain a teenager who is misbehaving.”
Cross said she wondered if there were other tools in the tool box and she had “some concerns with the way it is written,”
Jennifer Herbert, the downtown manager, told parents “Please do not drop off your children.” Some, she said were brought to FNOW by Uber. “I am not sure the curfew is the best answer.”
Asked about the cost of the police officers loaned by other towns, Herbert said the only cost was “feeding them” because it was done through mutual aid and that will go on for the rest of the year.
After it was decided to bring up the curfew on June 18, Wake Forest Police Chief Jeff Leonard rose to speak. After a few comments, he emphasized calling the police when there is trouble. “If you don’t call, don’t complain about it later.”
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One Response
I’ve been to almost every FNOW event since its inception. I thought and spoke to folks about not having anything like this when I was a teenager. The county fair in Illinois was OK, but as a 15, 16 or 17 year old hanging out with my parents? As they say now, not so much. I see the teenagers constantly walking around with their friends sometimes with a remote control supervision of their parents somewhere in their own set up location having drinks and conversation with adults. From the many years this has been so successful, I look into the future and know these teenagers will never forget this opportunity where they were hanging out in safety and kind of on their own for a few hours checking each other out with some rather good classic music in the background. It is a right of passage for them and the excitement of being on their own in this small dose is the beginning of their adulthood. FNOW has been an incredible success. If there were instances of adults drinking too much (never happened from what I’ve seen) should it be shut down? We need to view this for what it is, 99+% everybody having fun, being thoughtful and a great gathering of different ages all coming together until 9, and then we go home. Sure, it’s a baby sitter option for some parents, but it’s a safe bet and we need to loosen our hold on the youngsters like this event has successfully accomplished. We really have something special here and it’s far from broken. As long as it’s over at 9, I don’t see any justification for a teenager curfew.