Contracts OKed for downtown

Action delayed on truck parking and encroachment

Tuesday evening the Wake Forest commissioners approved three contracts for Downtown Improvements Phase 3 totaling $4,379,067.21 that will improve the streetscape along South White Street from Elm Avenue to East Holding Avenue and also develop East Owen Avenue into a small festival street.

An agenda item, a proposed ordinance to regulate the parking of commercial trucks and trailers, was removed from the agenda at the beginning of the meeting. Later in the hour-long meeting, a discussion led to postponing action on the proposed ordinance allowing the town to identify encroachments into public rights-of-way and require individuals and organizations to apply for a license for the encroachment or remove them.

The streetscape contracts had been delayed because there were only two bidders in December, leading to a re-advertisement for bids with an opening on Jan. 3, where again there were two bidders. (State law requires three bids for construction or repair projects over $500,000.) State Contracting Inc. was the low bidder for the construction contract with a bid of $3,999,948. Kimley-Horn and Associates Inc. and its sub-consultant Falcon Engineering won a contract for $310,000 to observe and administer the construction and test the materials used (Falcon). Mott MacDonald I&E LLC has a contract for construction administration oversight and direct costs for $69,119.21.

The work will include underground utilities, drainage, sewer and water relocation, sidewalks, street trees and amenities along South White. On Owen, the work will include removable bollards, an arch and the removal of curbs along with new street trees.

Director of Human Resources Virginia Jones said she supports the proposed code of ethics for members of the town’s advisory boards, but Commissioner Greg Harrington disagreed though he later voted for it.

“I would like to think [the advisory board members] are ethical and would not have to sign a piece of paper” to prove it, Harrington said. “I just don’t think it would make any difference.”
“I disagree,” Commissioner Brian Pate said, adding that in some instances he knows of “a couple of people should have recused themselves and didn’t, and it caused problems.

“I have to sign an ethics agreement,” Commissioner Anne Reeve said.

“I would like to see a document in place so they know upfront,” Commissioner Bridget Wall-Lennon said. The vote was unanimous.

The ethics code for advisory board members will be the same as that required of the mayor, town commissioners, historic preservation, design review and planning board members, touching on financial interests, close personal relations, close business relations and the appearance of impropriety. Also, the code says, “During public meetings, advisory board members should conduct themselves with professionalism and courtesy toward the public, Town representatives and each other.” It also advises that members should not use social media to communicate with town employees, they should not speculate or repeat rumors and if they know of something that could be used in a news release to contact the communications and public affairs director.

The board members also all agreed to amend the handicapped parking ordinance to prohibit parking in the hatched areas, the safety zones, in parking lots. The Walmart parking lot has several hatched areas, and Scott Miles, the public infrastructure engineer, showed pictures of cars parked on the hatched areas, including one with a handicapped placard in view. Vehicles with a handicapped placard or license will be ticketed if they are parked in a hatched area. Police Chief Jeff Leonard said from the back of the room after the question was asked that state law prohibits parking in fire lanes.

During the public comment section of the agenda at the beginning of the meeting, David Townson, a retired engineer who lives in the Del Webb section of Traditions, said the encroachment policy as it was written “leaves the door wide open for what kind [of encroachment] should be licensed and said a stone column is in the right-of-way between a sidewalk and the street at the entrance to the subdivision, the intersection of Traditions Grande Boulevard and Del Webb Manor.

Therefore, when it came to talk about the encroachment policy there was a lot of discussion. Miles said there will be a separate policy about signs, columns and monuments he will bring to the board next month. As for the column, Thompson talked about, he said he remembered it as being behind the sidewalk in the plans. “It managed to make its way [into the right-of-way].”

“There’s nothing in here about the denial of the application,” Commissioner Brian Pate said, adding he did not want to see the process “in just one person’s hands.” Is there an appeal process, he asked. “People would have no idea they could go to the board of adjustment for an appeal.”

Then there was the question of liability. “My concern,” Pate said, “is that there is liability for the town accepting something that’s already there. Say a truck runs into that column between the road and the sidewalk. Does the town have liability, and my real estate sense says we do have liability.” Pate is a realtor.

Miles said the column is on the town’s punch list to be addressed once the ordinance is in effect.

Town attorney Eric Vernon agreed the town would have liability.

Mayor Vivian Jones asked Miles to take the proposed ordinance and add the process for denial and appeal “and bring that back with the sign policy at the same time.”

Pate asked about the extent of the possible grandfathering of encroachments, and Miles said, “There’s a significant number of encroachments.

Harrington was confirmed for another year’s term as mayor pro tem.

Town Manager Kip Padgett reminded them of the board’s annual retreat on Feb. 1 beginning at 9 a.m. in the Renaissance Centre. Breakfast will be served before the action begins.

Another speaker during the public comment section was Cynthia Daniel-Williams representing the Knightdale-Wake Forest Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc. She said the chapter had adopted a social action program of supporting local governments and visiting town meetings in Knightdale, Zebulon, Rolesville and Wake Forest. Commissioner Bridget Wall-Lennon decided to run for office during the group’s visit to Wake Forest last year, and other members serve on the town’s cultural resources advisory board and the Northeast Community Coalition. The group, well represented Tuesday night, participated in the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. service day, participated with the coalition to provide food for 200 people, helped at the Hope House Community Day, the Juneteenth Celebration, the summer nutrition program at Olive Branch Baptist Church and hosted a candidate forum. “Our service to Wake Forest continues with MLK Day. You have our unrelenting support.”

The editor apologizes for an error in last week’s issue when quoting Commissioner Bridget Wall-Lennon, who wrote in an email: “I stated that I knew of  a dump truck and 18-wheeler truck that were parking on the main entrance street to our neighborhood.  They were parked close to the roundabout, and then when cars came through a particular street entering into the roundabout, they could almost run into the parked trucks.  The trucks aren’t actually parked in the roundabout.”

We apologize for the incorrect statement.

Just a little history: Do you remember where these stores were?

After Sunday’s meeting of the Wake Forest Historical Association and the program, From Bucket Brigades to Hook & Ladder – The Wake Forest Fire Department Grows with the Town, John and Hallie Arrington Hearn – her grandfather Thomas Arrington Sr. was the first fire chief – handed out several copies of a 1947 small poster with the direction on the front: “SAVE THIS CARD Hang this near your telephone for hand reference to fire signals and emergency calls for FIRE, POLICE, or DOCTOR. See REVERSE side for map of Wake Forest and location of your nearest fire alarm box. Additional placards are obtainable from any advertiser.”

The center lists the 20 fire alarm boxes and their locations – with No. 44 W Chestnut added by hand. The numbers run from 12 through 52, but numbers 25, 26 , 27, 28, 29, 30 are missing as are 38 through 50, except of course 44. Where are those boxes? There are only 19 box locations on the map because 21 was for out-of-town fires.

Wake Forest native Roger Shackleford gave an approximation of the wah-wah sound of the fire alarm. It’s doubtful anyone counted the wah-wahs up to 52; they just followed the fire truck or their neighborhood fire department volunteer to the fire.

Numbers are listed for Police – 215-1 – and Ambulance – 246-1 – which was then an oxygen-equipped hearse from one of the local funeral homes. The town’s rescue squad came much later. You could call about a fire at 247-1 during the day or 215-1 at night. The four doctors – Dr. G.C. Mackie and Dr. G.W. Corbin sharing an office and infirmary at 321-1 and 352-1, respectively, Dr. C.T. Wilkinson with office at 426-1, home at 265-1 and Dr. R.W. Wilkinson with office at 274-1 and home 323-1. The doctors Wilkinson built their homes next door to each other and shared a garage but practiced separately.

There is the schedule for the Wake Forest College 1947 football season, playing North Carolina, Duke and NC State, of course, but also George Washington in D.C., William and Mary at Williamsburg, Boston (College?) at Boston, Duquesne at Winston-Salem, Clemson at Clemson and South Carolina at Charlotte with the first game at home on Sept. 27 in the fairly new Groves Stadium on the west side of town.

The town had already heard the news that Wake Forest College would move to Winston-Salem, but its impact had not yet really been felt and would not until the move in 1956. The just-born Southeastern Theological Seminary, which began to share the campus in 1951, would be no substitute for the hundreds of college students and faculty.

But back to the placard, because around the emergency numbers and the football schedule several local merchants had paid for very simple advertising – a name, a telephone number and a brief description.

Starting at the upper left corner and going clockwise, they were Keith’s Super Market (Fresh Meats Sea Food Groceries) which was on South White Street, probably in the space now occupied by the Wake Forest Coffee Company and The Artists’ Loft; Service Chevrolet Company (Repairs to any Car) in what is now an office building and the next door White Street Brewing Co.; Miller Motor Company (Customer’s Satisfaction Guaranteed) in what is now headquarters for the North Carolina Surveyors Association and what was the Back Door Coffee Company (forgot the new name); Sure-Res Mattress Company (Manufacturer and renovator of mattresses of all kinds) in Youngsville (renovator?); Jones Hardware (Your GENERAL ELECTRIC dealer in the space Next Consignment Boutique now occupies; T.E. Holding & Company (Druggists since 1888) in the shuttered two-story building that has stood empty for decades at the corner of East Jones Avenue and South White Street;

Also, S.W. Brewer (Feeds and Seeds) which probably was in the spaces where Tonic just opened and Wayne’s Creative Hairstyling has been for years. S.W. Brewer had groceries and butchers and supplied several boarding houses; B&S Dept. Store (FOR YOUR CLOTHING NEEDS) occupied two older two-story stores with an archway between the women’s and children’s clothes on the left and the men’s and boys’ clothes on the right, now Wake Forest Art & Frame and Domino’s, respectively. An upstairs apartment above Art & Frame replaced a former beauty shop which was run by who?; Harvey Holding (Distributor Kerosene and Fuel Oil) is still a bit south on South White Street, run by Harvey’s son; and Morris Grocery with just a phone number. Was that in the building now occupied by B&W Hardware?

Wake Forest Florist (Flowers for all occasions) with a temporary phone, 447-1 was not where it is now south of Holding Oil, so where was it?; Hollowells Food Store (“Good things to eat” and The Complete Food Store with two telephone numbers, and again, where was it before it was on Roosevelt Avenue?; Lynam & Lee Grade A Market (“We Deliver” North End of Town) but do you recall which store it was in?; John M. Brewer, Agt. Representing Northwestern Mutual Fire Association, and where was his office?; Wilkinson’s Cleaners (New and Modern Equipment Quality and Service Assured) was either in the basement of the Wilkinson building where Las Margarita’s is now or had moved down to odd-shaped building constructed to fit into the scrap of land left over after Roosevelt Avenue was built; Meet me at Shorty’s with no phone number, but which location was it in in 1947? (Had the editor taken notes during Fireman Ben Davis’s presentation Sunday she would know the answer; Edward’s Pharmacy (REXALL DRUGS When it’s a Prescription was in the brick building in the southeast corner of Wait Avenue (spelled Waite in 1947) and South White Street that is now occupied by Salon One 21 and Color Bar; and finally, Glover’s (RADIOS – APPLIANCES Sales and Service For all you Electrical Needs) was where?

Next week the Gazette will follow up and ask some posers about the map on the reverse done while DuBois High School was still in full operation and before the U.S. 1 Bypass, now Capital Boulevard, was built.