Calling the Wake Forest Historical Museum “a gem, a little jewel” and saying the Wake Forest Boys & Girls Club provides much more than shelter for local children, is “not just a place for them to go,” Commissioner Greg Harrington urged his fellow board members to provide the funds those groups requested from the town this year.
As a result, the commissioners agreed last Thursday to provide $4,000 to the Wake Forest College Birthplace Society, which owns the museum, that will help pay the electric bill and to give the Boys & Girls Club $7,500, the same amount as last year (the club had requested $8,000).
The board did not alter retired town manager Mark Williams’ recommendations to provide $4,000 to Resources for Seniors, which operates the programs at the town-owned Northern Wake Senior Center; $98,500 to the Wake Forest Area Chamber of Commerce, which conducts the town’s economic development activities; and $11,240 to the Wake Forest Fourth of July Committee, which has organized the stadium show, fireworks show, children’s parade and activities in Holding Park after the parade since 1973. In recent years the town has given the committee $4,000 and then $5,000 last year; the increase was to cover the cost of police protection which is now being charged to organizations for events rather than lumped into the police department’s budget.
As they went through the proposed budget for 2015-2016 – which they will vote on during a regular meeting Tuesday, June 16, the commissioners and mayor never mentioned the tax levy, which remains at 52 cents per $100 valuation or the distribution, which is 11 cents for the contract with the Wake Forest Fire Department and 41 cents for town services.
They did discuss the money raised by the tax on the Downtown Municipal Service District, 14 cents per $100 valuation, which was originally established to build the downtown parking lots. The total budget now is $193,810 with the money used to pay debt service fr the South White Streetscape project, façade improvements and – next fiscal year – power washing the streetscape and a new sign at the Underpass.
Finance Director Aileen Staples and Public Information Officer Bill Crabtree said $27,000 was spent this fiscal year on a contract with Time Warner Cable to air Town of Wake Forest commercials about events and the downtown. The amount will go to $30,000 in the coming year.
“I’m not real happy with $27,000 going to advertising. I think we need to rethink that,” Commissioner Margaret Stinnett said. She is a former downtown business owner and said she did not think the property owners know the money is going for advertising.
Others thought differently. Planning Director Chip Russell said the ads run in prime time and are “pretty slick and nice.” Crabtree said the cable ads reach people who live outside town. Mayor Vivian Jones said if the ads are bringing people to downtown “that’s a good thing.” Commissioner Zachary Donahue said many young people do not watch shows as they are broadcast but stream them when it is convenient and therefore do not see the ads.
When asked about the county-wide revaluation of real property which will happen in 2016, Staples said, “I don’t know if we will see a 45 percent increase like last time,” 2008 when the county set higher values which fell in real terms during the recession. This year’s estimated tax base is $4.425 billion in Wake County and $68.5 million in Franklin County with a collection rate of 97 percent, which should give the town $22,665,466 in the general fund.
Donahue, who will not run for reelection this year, said he wanted “to plant a seed” and study the question of pay for the mayor and commissioners that could be tied to the town’s population or budget. “The responsibilities have increased as the town population has increased.”
Jones, who acts as a full-time mayor though she has part-time pay, agreed. “I think we are pretty low in the whole scheme of things. It’s gotten to the point you really can’t do it unless you’re making big money somewhere or are retired.” The commissioners are paid $6,190 each year and the mayor’s salary is $8,445.
Staples, during a discussion about funding for items on the capital improvement plan, said some of the priorities shifted because of an inventory of the town’s physical assets such as buildings. “It brought a lot of maintenance items to light.” Jones asked why the town is fixing a building “if we need to do the Flaherty Park dam?” O’Donnell said repairing the dam “did not rise to the level that it was a critical level. It doesn’t need to be done immediately.” Donahue suggested adding a comment column to the capital improvement plan that would record the context for the funding decisions.
The sprayground at the Taylor Street Park is included in the 2015-2016 capital plan because, Parks, Recreation and Cultural Resources Director Ruben Wall said, the county’s Community Development Block Grant program, is now paying the major share of the $328,350 cost. “Our cost was never going to be more than 20 percent of whatever the cost was,” Russell said, but now “our cost is only $65,672.”
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