Graders are busy at Wake Forest Crossroads shopping center at Capital Boulevard and Stadium Drive, and lots are marked off with black plastic fencing. But there was no new information about the stores and shops which will be building there soon.
Weingarten Realty announced in late September that Michaels, TJ Maxx and Petco would be building there soon. Also the discount department store Ross, Rack Room Shoes and Kirklands, a home décor company, are either interested or definitely planning stores there.
The Gazette will keep asking because it will take more stores than that to fill the 25 acres Weingarten purchased.
And if you are wondering, Fifth Third Bank still owns an empty lot next to the Olive Garden restaurant as well as a lot along South Main Street at Capcom Avenue.
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I try to keep up with the Neuse Riverkeepers because I am concerned about the quality of the water in the Neuse – remember when it was listed as one of the 10 most polluted rivers in America? Not much has changed.
Most recently Matthew Starr, the Upper Neuse Riverkeeper, reported that the current areas he is focusing on include:
–Monitoring the quality of water in Falls Lake
–Investigating and reporting on the surface and groundwater pollution at the Lee coal ash pond on the banks of the Neuse near Goldsboro. He says, “Arsenic has been found in groundwater near the Neuse River at 6o times the concentration permitted by federal law. Merely covering pits and ponds like the one at the Lee plant, rather than removing the ash to a line landfill will ultimately prove inadequate and perhaps disastrous.”
–Monitoring and sampling surface water pollution from CAFOs (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations) in the upper Neuse basin.
–Monitoring runoff from construction sites in Johnston County to stop and prevent illegal pollution.
— Working with the UNC Institute for the Environment on an outreach survey program among those who fish the waters near the Ward Transformer Superfund Site for PCBs in the waters and fish.
–Educating the public through news stories including articles in the Raleigh News & Observer and the Goldsboro News Argus as well as through guest lectures at UNC and NCSU.
