Board approves Olde WF and votes on trailhead
Tim Tunis with Electricities had very good news for the Wake Forest Town Board and town power customers Tuesday night, saying the sale of the town’s power assets to Duke Energy Progress will reduce the town’s debt payments by 66 percent and reduce its wholesale power cost by 9 percent.
Town power customers will not see an immediate reduction in their bills because former Town Manager Mark Williams included funding for an electric rate study in the budget for next year. The study will be done this summer or fall with any rate changes to follow.
The town now owes $1.89 million for its share in four plants formerly owned by Progress Energy; the sale of those shares to Duke will lower the town’s debt to $640,000 which will be paid off over 10 years at 2.9 percent interest.
Duke will pay $1.2 billion in cash to buy all the shares in the plants now owned by 34 municipalities, the North Carolina Eastern Municipal Power Agency which manages those shares will transfer $26 million in reserve funds to Duke, and the towns and cities will agree to a 30-year contract with Duke for wholesale power.
The result, Tunis said, will be a reliable power supply for the towns and cities, lower rates, and reduced risk, a financial risk they could incur if there were a large-scale accident to one of the plants.
The purchase, contracts and the sale of the bonds to pay off the remaining debt should be completed by July 1. The Wake Forest commissioners voted unanimously to approve the agreement.
Without any comments, the board voted four to one to approve Olde Wake Forest subdivision master plan. North Wingate Street will be extended and 10 houses built on 3.9 acres. Commissioner Margaret Stinnett voted no.
The board unanimously agreed to add a number of possible uses to the conditions on the lot at 1628 South Main Street where a rezoning in the 1997 had only one possible use, a plumbing contractor’s office.
“We made a mistake” when the board agreed to suspend action on the Smith Creek Greenway trailhead by an email vote, not in a regular meeting with public notice, Mayor Vivian Jones said, and the board proceeded to rectify that mistake by discussing and voting during the Tuesday night meeting. The result was the same. The board bowed to the strong opinions of the residents in the Caddell Woods and Moss Creek subdivisions and agreed parking for that section of the greenway – from the Neuse River bridge that connects it to the Raleigh greenway system north to Burlington Mills Road – will be in the neighborhoods. Assistant Town Engineer Holly Spring counted and there are at least 100 parking spaces available. Commissioner Zachary Donahue voted no.
There was a lot of discussion when Spring said the town will do away with parking along North Avenue from North Main to North Wingate because town crews need to rework the leaning brick wall on the north (parking area) side. And, she said, when Stadium Drive is reconstructed as a complete street with a roundabout at the Stadium/Wingate/North Avenue intersection, the onstreet parking near it will be eliminated. Also, a sidewalk will be built on the south side of North Avenue, which will reduce its width and make parking impossible.
