During Tuesday night’s Wake Forest Town Board meeting, three men who live in Traditions asked the commissioners to do away with the town’s ban on golf carts on town streets.
Chad Casale, who was a candidate for the town board last year, said he uses a golf cart to transport his disabled son to the pool and other places in the Traditions subdivision. He came armed with accident reports involving other vehicles and golf carts. In all of North Carolina from Jan. 1, 2010 through Feb. 29, 2016 there were 92 crashes involving golf carts and two fatalities. For the same time period in the state the vehicle crashes totaled 1,536,440 with 7,949 fatalities. Looking at just Wake County over the five years there were 12 crashes involving golf carts and one fatality, which was in a rural area of the county. There were 177,010 Wake County vehicle accidents with 427 fatalities.
Casale said it is his belief golf carts can be safely operated on some town streets, streets with a 25 mph speed limit, carts driven by a licensed driver and electric carts only. He suggested the town could charge a fee for a license to operate a golf cart and could impose fines if the provisions are violated.
Kyle Snyder, a veteran who said, “I have had 19 surgeries and still have 23 pieces of shrapnel in my leg,” all of which makes it impossible for him to use the walkways in the subdivision. He bought a $3,500 golf cart and said it was “like a kick in the stomach” to discover the town had the ordinance banning carts. He suggested, if the town adopts the state Department of Transportation’s model ordinance for carts on town streets, that a reflective sticker on the back be also required. The ban, he said, keeps him from getting out in the subdivision “to drive around and stop to talk to someone in their yard.”
Man Leete said he was really shocked to find he was breaking the law by driving his golf cart around Traditions. “The kids in the neighborhood are much safer if I’m backing up with a golf cart than if I’m backing up with my truck.” The town now has huge subdivisions with tiny lots. Children will be playing in the streets. “More golf carts and less vehicle traffic should be something we’re encouraging.
The fourth speaker, Michael Williamson who is the owner of Kids “R” Kids Learning Academy on Heritage Branch Road, was also worried about traffic. His concern was that the closing of the Rogers Road bridge in June will increase the traffic at the intersection with Rogers and Heritage Branch. Along with his school, Heritage Branch is the only access to Rogers for the retirement apartments and the 212-home subdivision, the Homestead at Heritage, now under construction. Very soon the 315 apartments at Capital Creek Apartments will be rented, though those residents can also use another entrance/exit farther east on Rogers than Heritage Branch.
Williamson asked if there was a way to work around the congestion by perhaps changing the times the two public schools on Rogers west of the bridge, Heritage Elementary and Heritage Middle, could change their opening and closing times.
Commissioner Anne Reeve asked Williamson if it was true that a traffic signal is planned for the Heritage Branch/Rogers intersection. The Homestead developer is required to build that signal once it is warranted according to DOT. Williamson said there are some concerns on the part of DOT about the signal, one being the intersection is very close to the CSX railroad crossing.
“We recognize the Rogers road closing is going to cause some problems, and we’ll be working on those,” Mayor Vivian Jones said. The closure is still set for some date in June. At the end of the meeting Town Manager Kip Padgett said town staff will be meeting this week with officials from the school system and DOT about traffic on Rogers during the road closure while the bridge is rebuilt.
The board dealt with most of the agenda quickly, unanimously approving the 12-lot East Perry subdivision and the text changes to the Unified Development Ordinance, but discussed temporarily closing Taylor behind town hall for the Irish Music Festival on Saturday, Sept. 17, of this year.
Commissioner Brian Pate said he was ready to approve the request but wanted to make sure waiving the town’s ban on alcohol on town streets for this does not “turn into bourbon street down the road.” He suggested the town increase its liability insurance from $1 million to $2 million because he was a DJ for years “and I know what damage can be done. Three surgeries and recovery can eat up a million.” As for concerns about serving beer and wine, George McEvoy with the Ancient Order of Hibernians said the group has been holding the event since 2000. “We’ve been doing well for quite a while,” using mostly volunteers as the bartenders. Commissioner Greg Harrington said, “I don’t think its our responsibility to provide alcohol on public streets,” and the festival with alcohol was approved three to one. Commissioner Jim Thompson said last month he would not be at this meeting because of a work commitment.
Before the commissioners went into a closed session with town attorney Eric Vernon to discuss purchasing right-of-way for the Ligon Mill Road improvement project, Parks, Recreation and Cultural Affairs Department Director Ruben Wall went to the podium to tell them there may be some issues with Holding Park Pool, which is due to open in about five weeks. The leakage problem continues, he said, but Facilities Director Mickey Rochelle has found a new product which may solve that. And, Wall said, there could be an issue with the paint and the walls but he will have more about that when they hold their work session on May 3.
Mayor Vivian Jones was disgruntled, saying the town spent $800,000 on the pool last year. “Why does the water keep leaking out?” Wall said there was no product to fix the leakage until a little while ago.
Harrington asked the other commissioners if the town could make an exception for the VFW Chuck Wagon which is one of the food vendors at Six Sundays in Spring and has to, he said, pay $75 a week for the permit but may not make $75 a week. Wall corrected Harrington, saying the permit is $25 each week, and Harrington still asked if the permit fee could be waived. Commissioner Margaret Stinnett said, “If they’re not making any money they shouldn’t show up at Six Sundays,” and Jones agreed, “I think this is a situation where we don’t need to be waiving that fee for them.” Harrington made a motion for the waiver but it died for lack of a second.
