Once the voting and vote tabulation for the people appointed to the 13 town advisory boards was complete, the Wake Forest Town Board breezed through the agenda Tuesday night with little or no discussion except the sale of a small amount of town-owned land.
Brian Ramey and his wife bought the house and land at 1621 Gracie Girl Way only to find out later they did not own land at the rear of the property which had been cleared by the former owner. The Rameys purchased without a mortgage and did not have a survey done at the time of the sale. The oddly-shaped area the Rameys hoped to purchase is 25 feet wide at most, only 8 feet at the narrowest and 280 feet long on the straight edge.
The land is in two parcels. One parcel, the smaller, was donated to the town in lieu of some open space fees by the developer. The second is a piece of history.
It was purchased by the town when it was building the first water treatment and delivery system that was built partly because of several destructive fires. On March 25, 1920, the contract was signed for the first water system, a system that included fire hydrants.
The water came from an agreement with the state to withdraw water from Austin and Smith Creek called a run of the river intake.
Commissioner Margaret Stinnett decided the town needs to hold onto all the land it has since there will be greenways along Austin Creek and that portion of Smith Creek in the future.
“He [Ramey] had an obligation to be diligent,” she said and make sure the cleared land was included in the sale. “He is one of the lucky ones who is always going to have woods behind you, not a subdivision.” She said there was no hardship involved and made the motion not to sell, seconded by Commissioner Zachary Donahue, who had a different slant. He said, “It would be premature [to sell] before we know the location of the greenway. I’m not opposed to the idea.” The vote was unanimous.
The board voted unanimously also on the following:
*The extension of the St. Ives subdivision onto 16.69 acres where there will be 16 single-family lots. The land is in the Falls Lake watershed.
*A contract of not more than $69,059.34 with Wetherill Engineering for designing the extension of Grandmark Avenue.
*Establishing a school zone on One World Way where the speed limit will remain 25 mph but the fines for speeding will be higher, Director of Engineering Eric Keravuori said.
*Accepted a grant from N.C. Forest Service of $3,889.60 to provide training and to apply for Tree Line USA designation. It will also pay to send Jennifer Rall, the town’s Urban Forestry Coordinator, to the Municipal Forestry Institute.
