Brief Bits

Work is proceeding apace at Wake Forest Crossing shopping center on Capital Boulevard, but it is frustrating to see the concrete and the workers but not be able to tell which and what will occupy the spaces. Brian Mountcastle with Weingarten Realty was able to give us a clue this week.

The stores will be East Coast Wings & Grill, Envy Nail Salon, Kirklands, Petco, TJ Maxx, Michael’s, Ross, Massage Envy and Mattress Firm. “We are also working to finalize our last few leases, which will give us 100 percent occupancy.

East Coast Wings & Grill does indeed specialize in wings of all varieties and has restaurants along the North Carolina coast and in the mountains, but nothing really close to Wake Forest. Kirklands is a home décor store and there are others nearby in Cary, Knightdale and Raleigh. All the other future tenants are well known locally.

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In response to a question, the town’s public information officer, Bill Crabtree, checked with Police Chief Jeff Leonard and told the Gazette the Wake Forest Police Department is continuing to investigate the disastrous house fire on North Main the night of March 25-26. “I’m ssorry but there’s nothing new to report.”

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The sale and refinancing of the parts of the Duke Energy Progress power plants owned Wake Forest is proceeding. Town Manager Mark Williams, Deputy Town Manager Roe O’Donnell and Mayor Vivian Jones attended a North Carolina Eastern Municipal Power Agency Rate Committee meeting on April 13 where the final documents for the sale were discussed. Town staff and representatives from ElectriCities will make a presentation about the sale to the Wake Forest Town Board on May 19. Williams has said his recommendation will be for the town to undertake a full rate study to determine the best way to pass on the saving to the town’s customers, both residential and commercial. “It is safe to say that rates will go down initially, probably sometime in 2016.” For more information about the sale of the assets, go to the April 8 issue and article entitled “Law enables lower power rates.”

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A couple weeks ago a home at 2005 South Main Street was razed to make way for the new approved use, a Valvoline Quick Oil Change shop to be built by Michael Slattery of Youngsville.

Norman and Etta Jones had lived there for decades – his nickname was Ace, we believe – and it was an attractive brick house where the yard always had neat landscaping and blooms. Just another way Wake Forest is changing bit by bit, day by day.

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Here is a bit of Wake Forest history that has gotten little notice. The News & Observer reported today – April 22, Earth Day – that the “Gettysburg Cyclorama” has been in North Carolina for years and was displayed once in 1965 when all 376 feet of it was laid out on the Wake Forest College football field at Groves Stadium, now Trentini Stadium. They had to take down the goal posts to fit it in. Do any readers remember seeing it there?

The large painting was completed in 1883 and was installed in the Cyclorama at the Gettysburg Battlefield historic site. Thousands have seen it through the years.