Not quality of life, a place of quality

The joint was packed. There were about 215 people in the main hall at the Wake Forest Renaissance Centre for the Arts Monday night for a dinner and Mayor Vivian Jones’ ninth state of the town speech.

As always, she surprised us and made us think. She began by saying people are always talking about the quality of life in a town, but she has concluded it is not the town’s place to provide that elusive sense, a quality of life. Your quality of life may mean something to you that you can even try to describe, but the next person over may, usually does have, a different interpretation.

Instead, Jones said, “I believe we as community leaders need to work to provide a place (emphasis in her voice and speech) of quality. We need to focus our efforts on making Wake Forest the best place it can be. I read somewhere that creative place making, done well, can deliver high value to the community.

“That is what we in Wake Forest have always been about – creative place making and creating a place of quality; however, defining it that way helps us, especially me, to focus on the things that actually create quality.”

Jones talked about the diversity of our community, people who help to make the town a special place. She noted the 130 or so people who area on the 14 advisory boards. Many of them and often their spouses were at the dinner, with most boards making up most or all of the eight-place tables.

Jones said the town’s strategic plan with its four goals are keeping the town board and staff focused on the strategies they have developed to achieve those goals or move them forward.

The first goal is to stimulate economic development, and this year the town established the economic development department. Jones showed a short video highlighting the business opportunities along with the personal activities – open space, social events –that attract people.

“Businesses will continue to come to Wake Forest and our population will continue to grow,” Jones said. “Do you know Wake County grows by 64 people every day? That means that by Friday, the county will have grown by the number of people in this room.”

She noted that Governing Magazine says  that half the new businesses in the nation since 2010 were started in just 20 counties out of over 3,000 counties nationwide. Wake is one of those counties. “People are moving to cities or metro areas of which we are a part. All people, the rich and the poor, the well educated and less educated. In North Carolina, this may be even more extreme than in some other places.”

For those who want to know how the town is managing growth, she encouraged them to attend the Wake Up Wake Forest forum on April 4 sponsored by the town and the Wake Forest Area Chamber of Commerce where Planning Director Chip Russell will talk about growth management.

The town’s second goal is promoting a safe and connected community and noted that Wake Forest was named one of the ten safest towns in the state. She went on to talk about the police department’s several activities with children, its DARE program in schools, Coffee with a Cop, Shop with a Cop and the Thanksgiving Turkey Giveaway.

Also mentioned were the engineering department’s erosion and sediment control program which holds developers to higher standards, the urban forest program with its trained cadre of tree steward volunteers.

Did you know the town has three certified arborists? One is Jimmie Kearney with Wake Forest Power who makes sure the town is properly pruning trees as it works to remove possible hazards to the electric system. That is why, Jones said, when Hurricane Matthew hit, when we were frozen by a January ice storm there were very few outages.

The town has several programs for special needs children, adults and their families. It is about to use $148,000 from the General Assembly on downtown projects. Also, the town received a county grant to renovate and improve the Renaissance Centre where attendance at events has jumped from 3,500 to over 20,000 in three years.

Jones sung the praises for the Northern Wake Senior Center owned by the town with programming by Miranda Strider-Allen through Resources for Seniors. Work on the expansion of the center will get underway soon.

She praised the efforts of several town women who started SING – Senior Informational Networking Group – which connected with Dementia Friendly America in Minnesota and began offering classes for area people and businesses who want to create dementia-friendly environments. The Wake Forest group is now the leading organization in the state and working with state government to make us a dementia-friendly state.

Along with all the new festivals and events bringing people to downtown, Jones mentioned an event that will be new this year – Juneteenth – which is being organized by the Northeast Community Coalition.

She talked about three special celebrations in 2016. Shorty’s turned 100, Bobby Perry retired after 51 years of cutting hair in downtown, and the Wake Forest High School football team won the state championship. “Wouldn’t Tony Trentini be proud!”

She ended, “I believe in Wake Forest we have preserved the feelings that people have for each other, that feeling of community, of small-town friendship. I am so happy to live here and so very proud to be your mayor. God bless you.”

There were a number of officials from other places – Wake County Commissioners (and chair) Sig Hutchinson, Greg Ford and Jessica Holmes. U.S. Senators Richard Burr and Thom Tillis sent representatives, and N.C. Senators John Alexander and Chad Barefoot had planned to attend but the Senate was called into session Monday night.

The town department heads and Town Manager Kip Padgett were there as were most of the chairs of the 14 advisory boards with several members, some with spouses. Staff and advisory board members were given free tickets. Communications Director Bill Crabtree said the town sold about 60 tickets and about 20 people came without tickets after dinner to hear the mayor’s speech. “It’s encouraging that so many people turned out for Mayor Jones’ State of the Town Address. It reinforces our long-held belief that residents of Wake Forest are not only passionate about their community, but they’re also invested in its future. As Mayor Jones noted in her address, Wake Forest is a “place of quality,” exemplified by the wonderful people who live here and commit themselves to ensuring it stays that way.”