Fire station tops CIP list

Wake Forest Fire Department’s Fire Station #4 on Jenkins Road, the subject of heated opposition from some neighbors last year, tops the list of projects for the town in the latest Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) which was made public last week.

There will be a public hearing about the $24 million CIP in March and it will be adopted after any changes are made.

The fire station is expected to cost $2.2 million, $1,750,000 of that for construction and $450,000 for equipment, a thousand-gallon tension pumper and perhaps a brush truck for forest fires.

The additional cost of the new station will be to hire 12 additional firefighters for three four-person crews to provide 24-hour coverage. Fire Chief Ron Early estimates it will take about two cents on the current tax base to provide the $750,000 necessary for the personnel and operating costs. Town Manager Mark Williams has told the commissioners the fire department plans to ask for an increase in its share of the town’s property taxes, which has been steady for several years at 10 cents of the total 51-cents property tax rate.

This week Early said he is still trying to find a way to finance the fire station, its staffing and equipment. He met this week with county officials to urge them to share the cost of the new station because it will cover so much of the county fire district west of town.

“I think the impact fees should pay for the construction,” Early said. The town has been collecting a fire impact fee on all new construction for several years and it is estimated to be about equal to the construction cost next year, or $1,750,000.

If neither the town nor the county will pay for the equipment, Early said the fire department, which has to operate like a business, will seek a loan for that amount. The department took out loans to pay part of the cost of Station #2 on Ligon Mill Road, Station #3 on Forestville Road and the new aerial truck. Early said the loan for Station #2 will be paid off in two years.

Early also explained why the station will be built with three bays when only one or two trucks will be stationed there at first. The station is built with a 30-year time frame, but the department is not sure what will be needed in that area even within the next 10 or 15 years. Stations built in the past with just two bays that had to be expanded later looked ugly after the additions, he said.

As for the rest of the list, almost half of this year’s CIP is $10.5 million in general obligation bonds the town could begin to sell soon after voters approve bond referendums for parks, greenways, streets and sidewalks in November.

The rest of the project list, apart from the fire station and the projects on the bond referendum, is heavily weighted toward facility repair and replacement.

In the small top Level A:

* The Community House on West Owen Avenue would have both its deck upgraded ($78,000) and its roof replaced ($48,000).

* Fences at athletic fields at R.H. Forrest Field would be replaced ($35,000) this coming year with fences at Flaherty, Tyler Run, Ailey Young and Wake Forest Middle School replaced in later years.

* Security systems would be installed at Flaherty Community Center, the Community House and pool and the parks and recreation maintenance center ($61,000).

* The server room in town hall would be upgraded ($20,000) and the customer service desk in the main lobby would be renovated ($37,000).

In the much larger Level B List:

* Expect the town to begin the second phase of enlarging the Northern Wake Senior Center, which is owned by the town, to expand the exercise room. The first step this coming year will be spending $200,000 for planning and engineering with $800,000 and $1.8 million in the following two years for construction. There are no plans yet for the multipurpose addition a 2007 study recommended.

* The town may well continue with the renovations at the new Renaissance Centre to make it more usable by a wider variety of groups. This coming year’s upgrades would cost about $222,000, and three more years with similar costs are planned.

* The gym floor at Flaherty Community Center will be replaced after years of heavy use ($51,000).

* There is a lot of activity about park bathrooms and some confusion.

During their recent retreat, the town commissioners agreed to keep all park restrooms open all year long, meaning when they open this spring they will not close for the fall or winter. But Facilities Director Mickey Rochelle clarified that this week by saying the bathrooms in Heritage High Park, Holding Park and Joyner Park will remain open. “The balance will close in the winter.” That is apparently because those bathrooms are not heated and pipes would freeze during the winter.

There is a $19,000 item in the CIP to heat the restrooms at Flaherty Park to make them usable all year, and the list also includes $40,000 to plan and engineer new restroom facilities in Tyler Run, Smith Creek and Heritage High parks where there are only portable toilets now. Construction would take place in three following years.

* An irrigation system will be installed and Field #3 at the Smith Creek Soccer Center will be sodded as the final year in a three-year plan to improve the fields ($130,000).

* The Wake Forest Police Department will purchase a new K-9 to replace Kyra ($15,000),two all-terrain vehicles and a trailer to patrol greenways and for emergencies ($45,000), and patrol vehicles for the new staff positions ($186,000). Town vehicles are purchased through a state contract at a reduced price.

* The town will probably begin planning and engineering ($863,000) for the expansion of the Operations Center on Friendship Chapel Road, which houses the Streets, Electric, Environmental, and Fleet Maintenance Departments. It is at capacity. The construction in the 2015-16 fiscal year would cost an estimated $6 million.

The town will also continue to upgrade its software and purchase new, replace its aging vehicles on a regular schedule, and do a number of other projects as outlined in the CIP or as become necessary during the year.

The CIP is available at town hall for those who want to read through it. The public hearing about the CIP will be held during the town board’s regular meeting on March 18.