Wake Forest architect Matt Hale, hired by the town to plan the expansion of the Northern Wake Senior Center, spoke at length Tuesday night about the new features planned in the building, the site problems and the struggle to make the desired features fit with the amount of funding available, $2,654,714.
The town has already almost doubled the size of the lot on East Holding Avenue by purchasing 1.71 acres immediately to the north of the original 2-acre site. The town paid $311,187.15 – contract price of $305,000 plus closing and other costs – to Ricky and Jane Wright and James Warren, closing the deal last December.
The future senior center will have three entrances/exits – the existing one, a service drive on the west side of the building for Meals on Wheels and its volunteers, and a full exit onto Brooks Street on the east side. Hale said that was difficult because the present elevation of the center site is 22 feet higher than the street that is being constructed as part of the master plan for the Retreat at Renaissance townhouse development.
There are 48 parking spaces now; there will be 109 after construction, many closer to the building. Those are not enough, Hale said, but what can be fitted on the site, which also will be graded to make it flatter.
There will be two new wings added to the original 1996 building, which will be reconfigured. The south wing closest to Holding Avenue will hold two large movement studios; the north wing will hold three arts and crafts rooms, a gallery leading from the new main lobby, storage and what has been called the body shop – the exercise room – since the building was opened.
In the original building, there will be three classrooms, a library/bookshop room, a computer room, office space for the staff, a large multi-use room and larger bathrooms for men and women. The kitchen off the multi-use room will be reconfigured to better suit the needs of Meals on Wheels. “The kitchen has always had a 100 percent rating,” Hale said, “because they don’t do any cooking there.” They just use it to stage the meals carried out by volunteers.
Hale’s group is currently looking at the cost estimates provided by an engineering company and finding how to cut those costs. For one, the engineers had included parking lot lights but Hale said Wake Forest Power will provide those.
He hopes to have everything ready for bidding by September, which will be when all the classes, meetings and other services provided by the nonprofit which provides the programming, Resources for Seniors, will have been parceled out to other locales in town.
Construction could start in late October and run for 43 weeks, finishing in early August 2018. Hale optimistically said the center could reopen on Sept. 4, 2018.
“I think it’s exciting,” Mayor Vivian Jones said. “Can we open sooner?”
Hale seemed to ignore that but told the commissioners there has been a lot of input from the seniors who use the center, citing “aggressive quilters. We listened to all of them.”
In other business Tuesday night, the board voted three to one to approve the second reading of bill allowing retail sale of alcoholic beverages to begin on Sundays at 10 a.m. Commissioner Greg Harrington voted no and said, “I’d like to reiterate that I think Sunday mornings should be reserved for religious activities.” The change goes into effect immediately.
The commissioners voted unanimously to annex the property for the Kitchin Farms subdivision, but Commissioner Margaret Stinnett said, “I am absolutely furious that they’ve had all this time and they’re going to close Burlington Mills Road just as school starts.” (See Brief Bits for information about that closing.)
They also approved annexing 43.25 acres at the intersection of Ligon Mill Road and Burlington Mills Road belonging to Richland Creek Community Church, and 22.30 acres at the intersection of West Chestnut and West Oak belonging to Harris Road LLC.
Senior Planner Tim Clark told them that the requested annexation of 3.2 acres at the intersection of the N.C. 98 Bypass and Retail Drive owned by William K. Mosely, MREA Wake Forest LLC, needed to be continued to September.
Terry Savary, the administrative assistant for the Community Development Department, was named the deputy town clerk to assist Town Clerk Deeda Harris.
The parking ordinance was approved, adding back 13 parking spaces on North Avenue.
The commissioners also approved an installment purchase contract with BB&T Governmental Finance for the Holding Park Pool project. The town will borrow up to $3.1 million at 2.85 percent. There were not enough bids on the first try – state law requires a minimum of three – so the project is being rebid with an opening bid day set for late August.
One Response
When will South Street and North Avenue be paved? There has been word that funding is there for this to be done. Spots in the pavement from Stadium Drive to the underpass is terrible and it will ruin a new car.