Triple A bond rating substantially lowers town’s interest
The big news for the Town of Wake Forest came at the end of Tuesday night’s town board work session when Finance Director Aileen Staples announced the Local Government Commission had sold $4.33 million in bonds that morning with an interest rate of 2.3634 percent when most bonds are selling at 3.62 percent interest.
This will substantially lower the town’s interest payments over the next 10 years. Staples said the first interest payment will be $320,000. The funds from the bonds will pay for the first street, park and greenway improvements town voters approved last fall.
“This is what triple-A does for you,” she said, referring to the town’s triple-A rating with Standard & Poor’s.
“This is great news,” Mayor Vivian Jones said. “This will make a big difference.” She also said she was disappointed that Moody’s, another bond rating service, had not increased the town’s rating but said it might happen next year.
Wake County’s officials and residents need to make difficult choices this year about its transit plan, how to get residents from homes to work, school or recreation, Wake Forest Planning Director Chip Russell told the Wake Forest Town Board Tuesday night.
Russell said he was speaking from a prepared script to assure that he and the dozen or so others on the transit committee are providing the same information to the different boards and groups.
He urged the commissioners, mayor and town residents to complete an online survey. Go to www.wakegov.com, click on Topics and choose Transit. That will take you to a website about the development of earlier transit plans and other broad information, and you will be urged to click on WakeTransit.com on the page. This will take you to a second page with more detailed information and videos. If you click on Choices Report you will find the survey partway down the page.
The basic choice is between ridership and coverage. Emphasis on and building for ridership will concentrate on areas of high population density and will provide services such as commuter express bus service to central locations and frequent service. Coverage will assure that most county residents have access to some form of transit, probably by bus in rural areas.
“If we go with ridership, that probably leaves us out,” Mayor Vivian Jones said. She is part of the advisory committee which has been considering the pros and cons of the two types of service. “Both of these are worthy goals,” Russell said.
The 78-member advisory committee and the transit plan consultants are looking at the population densities in Wake County as well as in Franklin, Chatham, Durham and Orange counties along with the employment density. Other considerations include the use of existing transit, its coverage, whether street patterns contribute to ease of access to transit or block it, and whether it is safe to cross the street to reach a bus stop.
The commissioners moved on to a discussion about fees for business expos at the Renaissance Centre. The center’s director, Pam Stevens, and Parks, Recreation and Cultural Resources Director Ruben Wall had proposed lowering the $1,800 fee to $1,500 for businesses in town or for members of the Wake Forest Area Chamber of Commerce. After discussion, the board members agreed with Town Manager Mark Williams’ suggestion they drop the chamber reference and only extend the lesser fee to town businesses.
