When the Wake Forest Town Board met with town department heads and others during the annual winter planning retreat on Friday, Feb. 1, there were several issues on the agenda but two stood out – holding a bond referendum for $40.5 million and finding ways to provide affordable housing.
Chief Financial Officer Aileen Staples said the town is in good financial shape and issued more debt in the past fiscal year than ever before in the town’s history – and did so without raising property taxes.
Working with consultants, the town is planning its debt from both bond issues and installment purchase to keep the amount of total debt below 2 percent of the assessed property valuation. The town’s current percentage is 0.9467 percent, half the amount of the town’s policy to never have more debt than 2 percent of the valuation. North Carolina law allows up to 8 percent.
During the current fiscal year, Staples will add about $8 million that will be spent for equipment and vehicles (an annual expense), $830,000; the South White Street streetscape, $4.8 million; and the new fiber infrastructure to connect all the town’s operations, $2.5 million.
Staples is asking the commissioners and mayor to consider a bond referendum of $40.5 million in November 2020 that would break out to $16 million for parks and recreation – and include a new community house on the south side of town — $21.5 million for streets and sidewalks including improvements to Durham Road and an extension of Harris Road for the northside loop, and $3 million for greenways. She’s considering a work session about the bond projects in March.
There will be at least one public hearing about the bond referendum – if the commissioners agree to hold the election.
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Brendie Vega, the assistant planning director, led the board members in a discussion about affordable housing while admitting there are no easy solutions.
The town has a goal of providing housing that meets the needs of today’s and the future’s workforce, and works through a partnership with Habitat for Humanity of Wake County. Habitat has announced plans to build six homes during 2019. Those homes will be built on the six lots along Caddell Street the town platted after rebuilding the street. Other town rules providing for higher density and accessory dwelling units on the same lot will also provide more affordable housing.
Vega also described a pilot program for nine units of workforce (affordable) housing on three vacant lots on Brewer Circle.
“The pilot project for workforce housing (affordable housing) will be a public-private partnership. The private party will purchase the lots, build the infrastructure, and build the homes. The homes will be up to 1200 square feet in size, making them more affordable,” Vega wrote in an email this week.
“The town will initiate the rezoning, initiate a right-of-way abandonment, and participate in the cost of roadway construction. Details are being worked out for a homebuyer program and other tools to keep the homes in home ownership and to remain affordable. As we work through the details of the partnership we will have more information to provide.”
There was a lengthy discussion by the commissioners about the difficulties renters face when they try to buy their first home, how to keep builders or later owners from renting the affordable houses in a town or Habitat program, and what other jurisdictions – Durham for instance – are doing to provide affordable housing.
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Town Manager Kip Padgett praised the staff and crews at Wake Forest Power for the many ways they are using technology to improve electric service and served customers better.
They use AMA – Advance Metering Infrastructure – which is an integrated system of smart meters, communications networks and data management systems that enable two way communications between the utility and the meter.
“We here at Wake Forest Power are able to see daily reads which can be used to help when someone does have an energy spike,” Jeremiah Swann, the electric meter supervisor, said in an email this week. “We also use this when we do home energy audits to see if there is a problem or when the problem started.”
Swann also said that Wake Forest Power was “one of the first municipalities in North Carolina to be fully AMI.”
The system can also detect a problem early, sometimes before a customer is aware there is one. “When a meter loses power we get an email from the system that lets us know that we have a customer without power. We have to log into the system to see where the outage is,” Swann said.
Wake Forest Power also uses load management to help save money during peak usage. “How it works is that one hour out of the month we have a peak, the time when the usage across Duke Energy’s system is the highest. During that time we try to shed some of our load to help us save and that way we can help keep our electric rates down,” Swann said
“One way that we shed load is with load management switches they are in some residential houses, [where] we control the AC, heat strips, and water heaters during the peak times. The way that the switches work are, during the winter time we control the emergency heat strips on electric heat pumps this keeps them from coming on, (emergency heat strips are an auxiliary heat that use a lot of energy). During the summer months we control the AC, this lets the AC unit run for 30 minutes, then it cuts off for 30 minutes. This lets the AC unit cycle so that it is not running the full time which helps save on power usage. The water heater we control every month by turning them off for this time. Water heaters are a big user in electricity. By doing this we can save.
“Wake Forest Power also uses generators to help shed the load,” Swann said. There are 16 generator sites that we control, eight of them we own, eight are owned by customers. The generators take the customer off of the power grid during the peak time.”
Asked if Wake Forest Power staff go out to customers and make sure their generators are sized correctly, Swann said, “We partner with Electricities and PowerSecure to make sure that the customer has the right sized generators.”
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Tim Edwards in the Wake Forest Inspections Department responded to a question from the Gazette about the new electronic plan review and permitting software. He wrote: “In early 2018 the town’s Inspections and Planning Departments implemented a new electronic plan review and permitting software with the assistance of idtPlans and BlueBeam softwares.
“With this new software we can offer a seamless/paperless approach to plan review and permitting that can be used by everyone from the large developer submitting for a new subdivision to a homeowner adding a deck or getting a water heater replaced.
“Once the applicant has logged into the software they are capable of completing the application, uploading applicable plan documents, and paying any applicable review fees. After the application is accepted by the town the software automatically assigns plan reviewers based on the type of project. This allows the plans to be simultaneously reviewed by multiple departments to review the plans at the same time as well as the applicant is able to log in and track the progress of their review
“After the review process is complete and the application approved for permitting the Inspections Department will contact the applicant of their approval. At this point the permit fees can be paid online and approved plans can be printed in order to have on site for future inspections.
“Since this implementation we have had nothing but positive feedback from everyone. One of the biggest assets is time saving for the applicant as well as the town being able to do these reviews and permits without having to handle paper and being able to submit and review without having to leave your office.”
Dementia series raises Alzheimer’s awareness
The Wake Forest Renaissance Centre for the Arts will host seminars in February, April and June to raise awareness about Alzeheimer’s disease and related dementias. Each seminar in the 2019 Dementia Awareness Education Series will offer residents the opportunity to learn about dozens of dementia-related programs, services, products and resources – all in one location.
This year’s series gets underway Thursday, Feb. 28, at 9 a.m. with Understanding Alzheimer’s & Dementia. Alzheimer’s disease is not a normal part of aging. Join us to learn about the impact of Alzheimer’s; the difference between Alzheimer’s and dementia; stages and risk factors; current research and treatments available for some symptoms; and Alzheimer’s Association resources.
Future workshops will be offered on Effective Communication Strategies (April 25) and Healthy Living for Your Brain & Body (June 27). The workshops are free, but pre-registration is required. To view the entire 2019 Dementia Awareness Education schedule and pre-register, visit www.wakeforestrencen.org/education/dementia-awareness-education<http://www.wakeforestrencen.org/education/dementia-awareness-education>.
The Renaissance Centre is presenting the series in collaboration with the Alzheimer’s Association of Eastern North Carolina and Wake Forest SING as part of an ongoing effort to establish Wake Forest as a dementia-friendly community.
For more information, contact Renaissance Centre Specialist Debra Horton at 919-435-9566 or dhorton@wakeforestnc.gov<mailto:dhorton@wakeforestnc.gov.
