Two years ago a consultant recommended the Town of Wake Forest find land near a major street, build new buildings and relocate the operations center now on Friendship Chapel Road adjacent to future homes in the Holding Village subdivision. The price tag: $27 million.
With all the other projects the town faced then – the community center in Joyner Park, greenway extensions, street repairs and extensions, expansion of the senior center – finding a new home for the operations center was put on simmer. There was some scouting for the right property but no action.
But then Wake Forest Power employee Chad Champion noticed a former utility supply company (JKW Enterprises) on Unicon Drive in the South Forest Business Park was going out of business and suggested the 15,000-square-foot building and 3.39 acres might be a good home for the town’s electric department.
On June 19 the town board agreed to buy the property for $2,930,000 plus closing costs, and now town employees are working to make the move in the near future.
“We believe the site is adequate for the next 20 years,” Mayor Vivian Jones said this week. “There is a large warehouse which will be able to hold all the supplies and has plenty of room for growth. There is also a fenced-in yard that will serve for storing the trucks safely and there is plenty of room there for growth also. There is also adequate office space for the electric department.”
Public Works Director Magda Holloway was out of town this week but replied to questions by email. She referred questions about numbers of employees to Human Relations Director Virginia Jones, who said there are 69 positions in the public works department: two in administration, 21 in Wake Forest Power, five in electric tree-trimming, 11 in environmental services (yard and leaf waste collection), two in engineering, six in fleet maintenance, 20 in streets and two in urban forestry. “We do not have a cemetery division, Jones said. “The cemetery is handled by Public Works Administration and some streets staff as needed.” Urban Forestry has a small staff in public works for the needed tree pruning and removal as part of the forestry office’s tree maintenance and health program.
One of the problems at the Friendship Chapel Road location is the scarcity of shelter or a garage for equipment. There will be six pickup trucks, two meter vans, two tree-trimming bucket trucks, four line crew bucket trucks and two digger derricks moving to Unicon Drive. Holloway said, “The bucket trucks need to stay under cover to keep the fiberglass booms as clean as possible as this is important for them to retain their dielectric value.” She also said the bucket truck crews range in size from two to four men depending on the work. A service crew needs two men, a line crew needs three to four and a tree-trimming crew needs three to four.
The move will also free up shelter space at the Friendship Chapel location. “It is very important to maintain our trucks as best we can. The shelter that will be vacated will allow us to provide cover for other vehicles within our department,” Holloway said.
As for an office assistant and supervisors, Holloway said they are still deciding who will go where.
The mayor said the town will borrow the money for the purchase but will not take any money from the Futures Fund as it will do for the SunTrust Bank purchase. Wake Forest Power, also referred to as the electric department, is operated like a business separate from the general fund.
“I am very excited about this opportunity to provide the space needed without having to spend a fortune!” Jones said. “We will have to do a little work at this site to make it work the best for the electric department but we have not done the planning necessary to determine just what that will entail and what it will cost – expected to be some simple things like shelving and stuff mainly in the warehouse part. We are extremely appreciative of Chad bringing this idea to us and making us aware of this facility being available.”
4 Responses
I know that the facility at Freindahip Chapel is inadequate and more space is needed. My concern is the fact that the town spent nearly $3 million and are not sure how much is needed to retrofit the facility. Since the town recently overspent on purchasing SunTrust on South White Street to try and re- sell it; I have concerns that too much was spent on this facility as well. I would love to see what the Real Estate Appraisers have said. On another note I second the question on how much money would we save with Duke?
How many millions would be saved by Wake Forest citizens if they were a Duke Power customer?
That is an excellent question Sonny. I think the Town has done some studies on cost savings to residents/businesses by switching but they also then have to counter how many dollars are lost to the Town in the switch. Hopefully some of our elected officials or Town staff can explain better, how the future looks if Wake Forest Power is leased, sold etc. to Duke or Wake Electric for rates. One of the problems historically has been the cost of the nuclear power plants which drove much of the cost problems but think we are now at end of paying them off so that should not be an issue. I know there have been some moves to look at other options.
I agree with selling the power co-op to Duke. I think Duke has been chomping to buy it once our town hit a certain population. The power company buys electric from Duke and then marks it up and re sells it to the town residents anyways.
Also if this Chad guy saved the town all that money like the article says maybe he should get a 2% finders fee on the sale. Seems fair enough to me.