June 18, 2003: Water/sewer increases delayed
Tuesday night Wake Forest’s commissioners pared a penny and gave the fire department 1 cent of the 2 cents it had requested, raising the town’s property tax rate from 52 cents to 53 cents.
Citing public safety needs, the board members said the additional $110,000 on the fire contract should be used for personnel, in particular full-time staffing of Station 2 on Ligon Mill Road.
There is a paid staff at Station 2 on weekdays, but after 6 p.m. during the week and on weekends it is staffed with on-call volunteers. Fire and first-responder calls are sent to Station 1 on East Elm Avenue, which has round-the-clock paid staffing, although the volunteers also respond.
“I’m very appreciative of what they did with the penny,” Fire Chief Jimmy Keith said Wednesday. “Everybody saw the need.” He vowed he would return to ask for the second penny for capital needs. However, he said, “We’ve got to look after personnel first and then see if (with the one penny) we’ll be able to do anything about capital purchases.” The fire department will receive a little more than $200,000 over what it had this year, he said, “and the personnel I’m going to hire will probably take about every penny of that.”
“A minute or two on the weekend can make all the difference,” Commissioner Thomas Walters said. Walters said he wanted to make sure the residents of Tyler Run and Carriage Run subdivisions receive the same fire service and call response.
Walters also said he had not had any letters or telephone calls asking him not to raise taxes, but he had received a letter from a mother whose child had breathing problems one weekend. Station 2 was open “and she was able to get help right away,” Walters said.
Commissioner Velma Boyd said she was in Durham recently when the person right behind her was struck by a car. It took 10 minutes for firemen to come from a station two blocks away because they were volunteers. Response time is critical, she said.
“I could live with a penny,” Commissioner Rob Bridges said because he was persuaded of the safety needs even though he is fundamentally opposed to a tax increase.
“These are bad economic times,” Commissioner David Camacho said, affirming his opposition to a tax increase. “We’re spending other people’s money and sending them the bill.” But, he said, he also had been persuaded there is a need for more paid personnel. He suggested the board revisit the fire department’s capital needs, including an aerial truck, in January.
Commissioner Chris Malone was the sole holdout against any tax increase even though he said he recognized the fire department’s needs. He is the board’s liaison to the Wake Forest Fire Department Inc., an independent entity that contracts with the town and with the county to provide fire protection in the entire Wake Forest area.
Malone’s motion to take the equivalent of a penny on the tax rate, $110,000, from the general fund balance died for lack of a second. Similarly, Boyd’s motion for a 2-cent increase also had no second.
Malone voted against the 1-cent tax increase and then moved to remove the proposed 2.5 percent water and sewer usage rate increases. In that area, he had support.
Camacho said he was against increasing the rates at this time because, if the utility systems are taken over by Raleigh, the rates would remain the same until all needed improvements are paid for, perhaps six or seven years.
However, he said, if the decision is to remain independent, the board will have to look at the rates in the fall. To provide the water the town’s growing population needs, it would cost $20 million to build the intake on the Neuse River, the waterline to the water treatment plant and expansion of the plant.
“We have stripped that fund (the separate water and sewer fund) to the bare bones,” Town Manager Mark Williams said, including several items Water Superintendent George Rogers says are needed now. Williams went on to say the fund would be $50,000 to $60,000 behind by January.
The water and sewer payments by customers, Williams said, would go directly to paying off the town’s debt (the cost of merger). Higher rates would lessen the time period to pay the costs.
“I’d rather pay less longer,” Camacho said.
The vote was 5-0 to remove the proposed increase in water and sewer usage rates.
In two other budget adjustments, Williams said the staff had already included $3,000 for study circles conducted by the Raleigh YWCA, and the board agreed to include $1,500 for the Kids Voting program.
A study of the town’s water and sewer availability and usage fees was included in the 2003-04 budget, but the board wanted to expedite that study. “I feel like its important all our facts are updated,” Walters said, in light of the merger discussion.
Finance Director Aileen Staples said she was already talking to the consultant, who was ready to proceed. Williams recommended the availability study for $19,000 be done immediately but the rate study be delayed “until we know if we’re still in the business.”
On Monday, the Wake County commissioners voted 5-2 to raise county property taxes by 4 cents, meaning Wake Forest residents will pay 5 cents more on their property in the coming fiscal year, July 1 to June 30. The county tax rate will be 60.4 cents per $100 value, and the town tax rate will be 53 cents per $100 value.
For real property in Wake Forest valued at $200,000, the effect of the two tax increases will mean $100 more in the tax bill, from $2,168 a year to $2,268 a year.
June 18, 2003: Sports Factory a go
“I almost feel like a kid at Christmas time,” Commissioner Rob Bridges said as he and the four other Wake Forest commissioners unanimously praised and approved Jeff Ammons’ plan to turn the former Athey building into a sports/retail/restaurant complex.
Commissioner David Camacho called it a “visionary use of that property,” and Commissioner Thomas Walters said his children would be frequenting the facility.
The only change in the proposal, agreed to by Ammons, is that the future Grandmark Street extension from Capital Commerce Center to Rogers Road through the Athey property can be built as a private driveway. However, it will be built to town standards for a collector street for conversion to a public street in the future. The Athey building on the east side of South Main Street lies between Capital Commerce Center and Rogers Road, and Ammons had proposed an outlet to that road.
The fate of the proposed indoor car dealership proposed by Glenn Boyd at the former Parker-Hannifin plant was probably sealed before the vote. Planning Director Chip Russell said he had heard from Boyd’s attorney Monday “and Mr. Boyd is not interested in any way in the right-of-way dedication.”
In a memo given to the board Tuesday night, Russell said his staff had continued to meet with the town’s engineering consultant, Boyd’s representatives and Jim Adams in an effort to work out a realignment of Wake Union Church Road in front of the plant and provisions for the planned conversion of U.S. 1 (Capital Boulevard) to a limited-access freeway.
Adams is developing St. Ives subdivision to the west of the plant property and owns the properties to the south and the north of the plant.
Russell said his recommendations were in the middle between Adams’ desires and Boyd’s stand that he not participate in any road changes.
Russell recommended that the conditions for the special use permit include Boyd dedicating an extension of the future 70-foot Agora Drive on the north side of the plant property and reserving a 70-foot right-of-way for the relocation of Wake Union Church Road along the west property line.
Protection of the environment is more important than transportation, John Rich said in presenting the case for approval. Rich is one of two remaining board members of the Wake Forest Industrial Development Commission, which owns the plant and the land and leases it to Parker-Hannifin.
Russell’s recommendation, Rich said, would take about 6 acres of the plant’s 30.5 acres and would, when the roads were built, disturb soil and water contaminated with trichloroethylene. The TCE was dumped or spilled when Schrader operated the plant and is now being cleaned up by Parker-Hannifin under an agreement with the state Department of Environment and Natural Resources.
“This project from an environmental standpoint is a dream come true,” Rich said, because there would be very little grading and disturbance of the soil.
As for the freeway plans for Capital, “that’s a 20-year what-if. If they (the state Department of Transportation) want to upgrade, they can buy what they need. They will have to do it with the shopping centers” along the route, Rich said.
Russell rejoined that the conditions are for dedication and reserve, not construction and would take only 2.76 acres of the land.
“The environmental part is very important and the transportation part is very important,” Bridges said. “The auto dealership there may not be the best use if they will not comply with our transportation plan.”
The vote to deny the special use permit request was 5-0.
Boyd owns Crossroads Ford in Cary and Wakefield Ford at the South Main and Capital Boulevard intersection in Wake Forest. Two years ago the town annexed and rezoned 22 acres on the west side of the Capital and Burlington intersection, land owned at least in part by Boyd. It was understood the 22 acres rezoned to highway business were to be used as a car dealership but that plan never came to fruition, reportedly because DOT required several improvements for the freeway plan.
In other planning matters, Mayor Vivian Jones asked about the trees on the Advance Auto Parts future site on South Main Street, and planner Lisa Schiffbauer said only two large trees would be removed. The site was such, Schiffbauer said, that the trees either had to be cut or would die however the building and parking were configured. The board approved the development plan with the condition there be interconnectivity with other lots along the back of the property.
The board also approved the annexation of about 2 acres owned by Geneva Stephenson at 12753 Wake Union Church Road. The board accepted petitions for the annexation of 8 acres on Durham Road submitted by Crenshaw Hall Associates Inc., and the annexation of 27 acres on Capital Boulevard for the future Lowe’s Home Center. Public hearings on those two petitions will be held in July.
Special use permits were approved for senior apartments south of Rogers Road requested by Centrum Heritage Limited Partnership and for a telecommunications tower at the Wake Electric office on East Wait Avenue.
A request by Denmark Construction to close the unpaved portion of Old Harris Road was accepted, and a public hearing will be held in July.
June 16, 2004: This is what we want, WF says
Calling Raleigh’s utility merger offers “vague and open to interpretation,” the Wake Forest commissioners voted unanimously Tuesday night to send a letter to Raleigh Mayor Charles Meeker that spells out what the town wants in a merger contract.
The town’s offer has four points:
— Full credit for its water plant’s 2.0 million gallon a day production, and a maximum of 8 mgd from Raleigh in 2025 with no growth limits or annual percentage increases. Raleigh would not charge Wake Forest for the 8 mgd.
— A two-year transition period.
— An agreement to expedite merger.
— No deferral of the Neuse River reclassification. Instead, once merger is assured, the town would join Raleigh in asking the state Environmental Management Commission to reclassify the river as non-potable, “assuming Raleigh still does not see the long-term benefit of this water source.”
It was a response to Meeker’s faxed offer on June 7 with four key points that included asking the General Assembly to defer reclassification of the Neuse River as a drinking water source until Jan. 1, 2005.
Wake Forest sees the river as “a valuable water resource,” Mayor Vivian Jones’ letter says, and one the town must continue to develop as its future water supply as long as there is uncertainty about merger.
The town will have to spend almost $750,000 on that project during 2004 and $2 million more by July of next year. “The offer to delay the reclassification is of no benefit to Wake Forest,” Jones wrote. (The full text of the letter is at the end of this article.)
To underline their commitment to developing the intake as a water source, the commissioners later voted unanimously to adjust the contract with its engineering firm of Hazen & Sawyer by $100,000, increasing it to $300,000.
State Rep. Rick Eddins spent Tuesday evening at the meeting, along with James Wahlbrink, director of the Raleigh-Wake County Homebuilders Association.
Also at the meeting were two of the Riverplace owners, John Lancaster and Raleigh attorney Gene Boyce, and their attorney, Gary Joyner. Those three were closeted with the town commissioners for about half of an hour-long closed session that was called to discuss land acquisition and held during the middle of the regular meeting.
Eddins said that three years ago, when Raleigh was successful in getting the General Assembly to agree to defer implementation of the reclassification until July 1 of this year, most if not all landowners in the proposed watershed received a letter, leading to a large-scale protest by those landowners. A similar mailing has not been done this year.
Eddins said he was just there to listen, but Town Manager Mark Williams said Eddins is prepared to introduce a bill to defer reclassification.
The Wake Forest letter once again emphasizes “the true assets of our system.” Those include nitrogen credits for the wastewater discharge permit at the sewer plant that are worth over $5.5 million and the capacity at the water plant. Raleigh has agreed to credit the town for 1.2 million gallons of water a day, the safe yield at the water plant, but Wake Forest is now asking for credit of 2 mgd, the maximum yield.
Rather than agreeing to an incremental schedule of water availability, the town now is asking for 8 mgd in 2025.
This is a new approach, Williams said. “You provide X amount and we’ll use it reasonably versus trying to get into the 3 percent this year, 4 percent that year. It gives you more flexibility provided that Raleigh has it available.” Raleigh will have to continue to add to its water capacity. The only increase in sight is the Lake Benson treatment plant slated to open in 2011.
Along with water capacity, there is a question about its delivery. Wake Forest cannot complete a second water delivery point in Wakefield because the water pressure from Raleigh is so low.
George Rogers, the town’s supervisor for water resources, said Tuesday night that, in round numbers, Wake Forest’s water pressure is 70 psi and Raleigh’s is 100 psi. Early in May, the Raleigh water pressure at the Wakefield delivery point was 20 psi. Fire Chief Jimmy Keith said he had heard about the problem and was concerned. Water pressure that low is insufficient to fight a fire. All of the Wakefield area is served by a 12-inch water line.
Commissioner Chris Malone began the move to make Raleigh an offer during Monday night’s budget work session. “I’ve not been satisfied with the response we’ve been getting from Raleigh. Let’s tell them what is good enough and let them say no to us.”
All of the commissioners and the mayor said Raleigh has not been willing to consider the town’s assets, which were part of the town’s bargaining position, or the value of the water intake, which was not.
“They’re not willing to give us anything for anything,” Jones concluded Monday night. She and Williams composed the letter Tuesday morning.
Williams said Tuesday night the current estimates are that Raleigh would require $14 million in improvements to Wake Forest’s water and sewer systems, an amount that would necessitate a seven-year transition period.
June 15, 2005: Drama group dreams of Scotland
You can be a celebrity Friday night, June 24, when you help the drama department at Wake Forest-Rolesville High School fulfill their dream to attend the Fringe Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland, in August.
First you can bid on a T-shirt signed by:
- Clay Aiken
- Johnny Depp
- Morgan Freeman
- Tom Hanks
- Chad Michael Murray
- Rusty Wallace
- Denzel Washington
- Robin Williams or
- Henry Winkley
Other items in the silent auction include a four-day Bahamas cruise, $1,700 in services at Raleigh’s elegant Skin Essence: A Day Spa, and a host of services and products from local restaurants and retailers.
The $3 admission includes door prizes, light hors d’oeuvres and entertainment. The first 50 attendees will receive a gift from the Wake Forest-Rolesville High School drama department.
“We have already raised $60,000 and we need your help with the last payment of $40,000,” Alan O’Shaughnessy, one of the parents helping the student group, said.
WF-R is one of only 50 high schools nationwide invited to perform at the Fringe Festival in August and the only public high school representing North Carolina.
The event will be held at the Wake Forest Community House on West Owen Avenue on Friday, June 24, from 7 to 10 p.m.
Online bids can be placed prior to the auction at www.wrapwf.org.
June 15, 2005: Help plan for walkers and bikers
If you walk or bike or hike, if you want to use a sidewalk or a greenway or if you just think the needs more sidewalks and greenways, you need to go to town hall – you will probably have to drive – Thursday, June 23, for a public workshop about the town’s pedestrian plan. It will be held from 7 to 8:30 p.m.
The town has a $24,500 grant from the state Department of Transportation, matched by $10,350 in town funds, to draw up a plan for walkers and bikers.
The town has hired Greenways Inc., headed by Chuck Flink, to draw up the plan. Flink is also planning the greenway for Heritage South/Wildflower.
“They have developed a presentation illustrating the different types of local conditions, including some quick fixes and longer-term opportunities,” planner Ann Ayers said. Greenways is using Global Positioning System technology for its presentation.
When town residents were surveyed about the transportation system, they said sidewalk projects should be the fourth and sixth priorities with a pedestrian-connected rail and bus system as fifth.
“The greenway system is one component of the pedestrian plan,” Ayers said. “Connecting the variety of facilities will be a key component of the plan.”
“Pedestrian activity makes neighborhoods safer as people are out and about and get to know each other. Who belongs and who doesn’t?” Ayers said. “Pedestrian activity also strengthens community bonds. Kids and adults who walk for fun, fitness or mobility are more physically fit.
“Generally, we think of walking as one choice, but in some cases it’s the only choice. If you aren’t able to afford a vehicle and associated costs, how will you get to work or school and how has your community planned for your travel?”
The agenda for June 23 is a summary of existing facilities and regulations, attendees’ views about the goals and scope of the plan, and a survey.
June 21, 2006: No decision yet on town hall site
The Wake Forest Town Board spent about 80 minutes in a closed session at the end of Tuesday night’s meeting, and returned to the meeting room at 10:20 p.m. only to adjourn.
Town Manager Mark Williams said the board had directed the staff and attorney Eric Vernon to continue to negotiate. Williams, Vernon and Deputy Town Manager Roe O’Donnell were in the closed session with the commissioners and mayor.
There had been some hints in the last two weeks that a decision was near.
The board has selected two possible sites: the DAB site along East Elm Avenue between South White and Brooks streets – the site favored by most speakers at the public hearing earlier this spring – and a combination of properties along Brooks Street from the East Owen Avenue intersection south toward The Forks Cafeteria. When the two sites were selected, Williams said he preferred the one on Brooks because of its closeness to the planning department and the police station.
The Renaissance Plan envisioned the town hall on or near the DAB site with a town green.
Craig Briner, who owns the Wake Forest Plaza and land across Brooks from the DAB site, has proposed several incentives to the town if they choose that site. They include construction a three-story retail and office building at Brooks and Elm, completing construction of Brooks through to East Holding Avenue, refurbishing the plaza building, and presenting a site plan this summer for 120 upscale townhouses on the 12 vacant acres next to the plaza.
The DAB property is owned by Linwood and Sandra Davis of Wake Forest through a corporation, WAVTAMPA Enterprises. Wake County values the property for tax purposes at $322,509. The company buys and sells used cars, vans, SUVs and light trucks. The property was formerly the Miller Oil Company, which was later bought and operated by McCracken Oil.
The town owns the parking lot at the corner of Brooks and Owen. The property that might be purchased for the town hall would be the Green & Wooten insurance agency building and lot and the Coin Laundry and its parking lot. One possible configuration for the town hall also would cover the American Legion building and parking lot. One of the possible plans for the town hall showed the present building razed and the parking lot reconfigured. Another proposed a green space next to the H.L. Miller Park where the present town hall and parking lot are.
John E. Wooten Jr. and his wife, Shirley, of Wake Forest own the insurance company building and land, which are valued at $114,393 by the county in its tax books. Lee Pryor owns the Coin Laundry and parking lot valued for tax purposes at $136,799.
June 20, 2007: Town property tax to rise one cent
Tuesday night the Wake Forest Town Board agreed by a three to one vote to increase the town’s property tax rate by one cent, rising from 54 cents per $100 valuation to 55 cents.
The additional cent is to be added to the Wake Forest Fire Department’s share of the tax rate, going from 10 to 11 cents, and yielding an additional estimated $202,000.
The increase will mean an additional $15 on the tax bill for a house valued at $150,000, an additional $20 annually for a house valued at $200,000.
Commissioner Frank Drake, the board liaison to the independent fire department, made the motion, saying, “My goal is to afford the underserved portions of our coverage area greater access to fire service.” Fire Chief Jerry Swift has pointed out the response time from the two existing fire stations can be as long as seven or nine minutes for some outlying parts of the town.
During the June 12 joint meeting of the town board and the fire department’s board of directors, Swift said $200,000 would allow the department to man an existing truck that would “float” along Forestville Road or Wake Union Church Road during daylight hours, providing quicker response to the western and eastern reaches of the town. The truck would return to Station #1 at night when more volunteers, many of whom work out of town, are available.
Commissioner David Camacho voted no. “I feel like it is premature to say its one cent. We didn’t really get our arms around what the needs are.” The department has great needs, he said, but he objected to raising the tax rate “willy-nilly without a specific spending plan.”
Camacho also said one of the results of the joint meeting was to demonstrate there could be better locations for the three fire stations Swift plans.
And, he said, in past years “We heard over and over again they needed a ladder truck. At the meeting the other week they said re really needed a Quint [a combination pumper and short ladder] or a couple of Quints.” By asking the right questions, Camacho said, the two boards might be better able to find out what is needed.
Drake said that as an independent body, the fire department may spend the money as it wishes. However, “I’m satisfied if we afford the department the additional coverage that is how they will spend it.”
“They can spend it however they want,” Mayor Vivian Jones said.
“I thought that what we were working toward” was to change the fire department’s funding after the county-wide property revaluation next year, Camacho said.
Commissioner Margaret Stinnett wanted to amend Drake’s motion to delete the $32,000 budgeted for the Wake Forest Chamber of Commerce for economic development, add $600 of that to Kids Voting and hold the rest for the end-of-life center Hospice of Wake County is planning, the Wake Forest Centennial Committee or a request she said is coming soon from the DuBois alumni.
Drake considered this, then said, “Margaret, I love you but I don’t love you that much.”
“Damn. I seconded your motion,” she said.
Drake’s successful motion also was to take $30,000 from fund balance (savings account) for the centennial committee (see story in this week’s edition) and increase the second-offense electric meter tampering fee from $500 to $600.
The full board agreed to a change in the town’s fee schedule. There will be a new $8,500 fee for the examination of applications from wireless telecommunications companies who want to install new towers, a new $20 fee for the use of the courtroom in the Wake Forest Police Department, a change from $5 to $2.50 for people who pay their sanitation bills late, and a new fee of $3.50 for the Guide to Wake Forest which was recently published.
Deputy Town Manager Roe O’Donnell said the town considers meter tampering to be a serious matter and it happens quite often. The town can and does prosecute. “On the third offense we take them to court. We still have the option to do so on the second offense.”
“There’s one second offense being prosecuted right now,” Finance Director Aileen Staples said.
“After the third time, the meter will not be returned,” O’Donnell said. “If the meter’s been removed from the socket, we’re going to know that just by looking at the daily report. More often, the seal is cut and the meter has been taken out and put back.”
The budget also includes a widened area for the municipal service district to cover all of the downtown Renaissance Plan except for residences, apartments and Jim Adams’ South White Street property, which has never been annexed. The tax on the district property now will be 17 cents per $100 valuation; it was 10 cents.
June 20, 2007: Water use increasing
“The folks who are moving into town are using a lot more water per dwelling unit,” Deputy Town Manager Roe O’Donnell told the Wake Forest Town Board Tuesday night.
That increased water use means the town will probably have to purchase additional water and sewer capacity from Raleigh, which owns the systems, in 2009.
Water use to date – with most of the summer ahead – has already peaked at 4.68 million gallons in one day. Under the contract with Raleigh, Wake Forest can use up to 4.91 mgd at a peak through 2010.
New town homeowners, O’Donnell said, are using 508 gallons each day. “Most of these new residents are putting in external water irrigation systems.”
He is in hopes two new conditions – the mandatory year-round permanent restrictions on irrigation and watering Raleigh is imposing that will begin July 2 and the town’s policy of discouraging the use of treated water for irrigation – will reduce use in individual homes and decrease the amount of water and sewer capacity the town will have to buy.
Raleigh’s Director of Public Utilities Dale Crisp has told O’Donnell the odd-even watering restrictions could reduce use by 10 to 30 percent. Without the restrictions, O’Donnell said, “Next year we will have exceeded our capacity of 4.91 million gallons a day. I think the worst-case scenario is we will see is a ten percent reduction.”
And, he said, “We have promises from new development such as Holding Village not to use municipal water for irrigation.”
Without the new watering restrictions, O’Donnell projected having to purchase 1.5 million gallons of water capacity and 50,000 gallons of sewer capacity in 2009. At today’s costs of $5 a gallon for water capacity and $4.50 a gallon for sewer capacity, the town would pay a total of $7,725,000.
With the watering restrictions and by discouraging new irrigation systems in subdivisions, O’Donnell hopes to reduce individual home use to 400 gallons a day at peak use.
That would reduce the 2009 needed water and sewer capacity purchases to 800,000 gallons of water and 50,000 gallons of sewer. The cost would fall to $4 million for water capacity, $225,000 for sewer capacity.
Crisp said Wednesday the costs per gallon are likely to rise. He said he bases today’s charge for water on the construction cost of the Dempsey Benton Water Treatment Plant, not yet complete, which will draw water from Lake Benson and Lake Wheeler. The sewer capacity current charge is based on the engineer’s estimates for the expansion of the Neuse River Wastewater Treatment Plant and may change after the project is bid.
In 2010, the contract between Wake Forest and Raleigh calls for a 4 percent increase in the amounts of water and sewer the town can use.
After O’Donnell’s presentation, the commissioner voted to approve a water and sewer conservation policy which “strongly discourages” the use of municipal water for lawn and plant irrigation in new developments and encourages existing homeowners to eliminate or reduce their use of potable water for irrigation. The policy also encourages the use of drought-tolerant grass, native plants, natural rainwater retention and the use of water-saving appliances and devices in new and existing homes.
Camacho asked about the capital improvements Raleigh is undertaking for the town’s systems and how the costs will affect the transition period during which customers continue to pay the frozen town water and sewer rates. When the capital costs are paid, town customers will pay the lower Raleigh rates.
The biggest project, O’Donnell said, is the expansion of the Smith Creek wastewater treatment plant. It is being bid, he said, and the cost should be known within the next 60 days. Some projects in other towns in the Raleigh system have come in much higher than estimated.
“We still anticipate the transition period will be less than the seven years” originally projected.
Some items have cost less. Rather than spend $400,000 to paint and repair the Taylor Street water tower, O’Donnell said, Raleigh opted to dismantle it at a cost of $30,000.
Town Manager Mark Williams said Raleigh has promised an accounting all the costs and the amounts town customers have paid in rates and fees in November.
June 18, 2008: Board adds garbage fee to tax rate
A divided Wake Forest Town Board added five cents to Town Manager Mark Williams’ proposed tax rate of 46 cents Tuesday night – four cents to replace the monthly garbage and recycling fee and one cent for the Wake Forest Fire Department.
That brings the tax rate to 51 cents per $100 valuation.
Williams had recommended a 37-cent tax rate for the town’s general fund, a revenue-neutral rate after this year’s county-wide revaluation, plus nine cents for the fire department. An eight-cent rate for the fire department would have been revenue neutral; the department had requested 10 cents.
Commissioner Margaret Stinnett was the only vote against Commissioner Chris Kaeberlein’s motion to add the penny for the fire department, giving them 10 cents.
On the vote for Commissioner Frank Drake’s motion to eliminate the separate garbage and recycling fee and recoup the costs by adding four cents to the tax rate, Stinnett initially voted no, then immediately changed her vote to yes with Drake and Commissioner Anne Hines.
As the discussion began, Kaeberlein seconded Drake’s motion for the four cents, saying he had been somewhat frustrated by the budget process, his first. “I had hoped we would be able to reprioritize our funding,” delaying or reducing the amount of funding for some projects. One of those was the $110,000 pledged each year for five years for the museum addition at the Wake Forest College Birthplace.
“One of the things that concerned me is not funding our emergency services enough,” Kaeberlein said. “Our goal is to make sure our citizens of Wake Forest are safe and secure, and I want to make sure in particular the fire department is well funded.”
Even though his core beliefs include keeping taxes as low as possible, Kaeberlein said, “I have done some research and I had a discussion with my father, who was a professional fire fighter for thirty-five years.” Even with the additional penny, Kaeberlein said the town “is still getting a pretty good bargain” from the independent fire department.
Commissioner Peter Thibodeau said this is a growing community and he supports funding the town’s emergency services, but he said he was “wholly opposed” to deleting the sanitation fee.
“I understand the need [for the change in paying for sanitation] as described by the staff,” Hines said. “I think a penny for the fire department is more valuable than four cents to collect garbage, but I would like both.”
During the first of two earlier budget work sessions, Finance Director Aileen Staples and Williams said over half the houses in the town limits are not paying for – and sometimes not receiving – garbage and recycling collection. New residents no longer have to call or contact the town to have their water and sewer connected and the town no longer bills them for those services. Also, large parts of town are served by Progress Energy or Wake Electric, not the Wake Forest Power. The town, therefore, does not know about new residents who may use the roll-out carts left behind by the former residents. Staples said the town had lost at least $45,000 in uncollected garbage fees.
The town planned to raise the monthly fee from $14.60 to $16.72 because of increased costs to the collector, Republic.
Thibodeau argued that the four cents would be an additional burden on the commercial taxpayers and on people with larger, more expensive homes.
“You would have to have a house worth $475,000 before you break even,” Mayor Vivian Jones said.
Thibodeau said he wanted to study the issue and revisit it next year.
“We already have services that are part of our property tax such as fire and police,” Kaeberlein said.
“It really is a philosophical question, whether garbage is one of the basic services covered by your property tax or whether you charge a fee for it,” Williams said. “What is the fairest way to charge for that service?”
In the past, Wake Forest has included garbage collection, done by town employees, in the property tax rate.
Drake saw it in terms of savings to the individual homeowner. He has a home that is worth more than most, he said. ($443,573 according to the Wake County web site.) “Instead of writing twelve checks a year, I will pay it as part of my municipal tax and will be able to deduct it from my federal income tax.” Drake, a lawyer, also said he enjoys a low tax rate.
“I’m actually going to end up paying less this way, and they [the people whose homes are valued at less than his] are going to end up paying less, and the town is going to pay less,” including the $20,000 it costs now each year to bill for garbage.
“I see it as a win-win-win situation,” Drake said.
Drake will pay $177.43 on his town property tax bill for the four-cent garbage and recycling addition. With the planned increase in the monthly fee, he would have paid $200.64 over a year.
The savings are larger for people who own homes with a lower appraised value. The savings for a home worth $175,000 will be $126.27. For a home valued at $475,000, the owner will save $1.24.
Wake Forest homeowners will see the new town rate as well as the new county property tax rate of 53.4 cents per $100 in the bills they will receive in late July or early August with a due date in January.
“Even though most of us won’t pay our taxes until the last minute (January 2009), they cover the entire fiscal year of 2008-09 (July 1, 2008- June 30, 2009),” Williams replied Wednesday to an e-mail question about timing. “So we get six months of town services before we have to pay for it. That’s one of the reasons towns need to have healthy fund balances, since the vast majority of revenue for our General Fund does not come in until six or seven months into the fiscal year. We have to live off our ‘bank account’ until January and February each year.”
Williams does not pay the town property tax because he and his family live outside but near the town limits. He purchased the house in 1986, well before he was named town manager in 1993, and the town commissioners at that time and since have never required him to move into town.
June 18, 2008: Board denies Quail Crossing
“I thought the project was quite nice,” Commissioner Anne Hines said, praising the design for Quail Crossing shopping center at the corner of the N.C. 98 bypass and Jones Dairy Road. “I was impressed with the details they had incorporated. They went to great lengths to make it look like a community shopping center.”
Despite her opinion, three of her fellow commissioners – Frank Drake, Margaret Stinnett and Peter Thibodeau – voted not to approve the special use permit for the center. The planning board had unanimously recommended it.
Commissioner Chris Kaeberlein said he agreed with Hines. “I think the applicant went over and above what was required.”
Drake began the discussion with a flat statement, “I don’t like it at all.”
Thibodeau said he agreed. “I have seen too many communities with closed shopping centers,” alluding to competition from the next-door center, Gateway Commons under construction.
Thibodeau said he had problems with the traffic analysis. “The report seems to call for more improvements than were being proposed.”
“It’s the other way around,” Assistant Planning Director Ann Ayers said. “The improvements proposed exceed the [traffic] analysis and DOT requirements. This is the more onerous requirement of the three.”
Drake and Thibodeau did not like the right-in, right-out access on the bypass for Quail Crossing. Gateway Commons will have a right-in, right-out access.
“I think that the right in, right out is a good thing because it does allow another exit from the shopping center and does eliminate some of the traffic in the intersection,” Mayor Vivian Jones said.
Drake argued with that, saying he was not ready “to take the second step in transforming the bypass to a commercial strip so it will not be the bypass people had hoped it would be.”
Drake also said he was not convinced the center “would not have a deleterious effect on the downtown” and said the grocery store in the center could be built in other locations in town. “There is a crying need for a grocery store near there but not there.”
“I couldn’t agree more with you about downtown,” Thibodeau said, adding that the grocery store there would undermine a downtown grocery store.
The developer, JDH Capital from Charlotte, planned to build a Bloom grocery store, an upscale store that is an offshoot of Food Lion.
“It was my understanding the types of businesses they were planning would not compete with downtown in any manner,” Hines said.
(Editor’s note: A later configuration was approved for the shopping center, but after major site preparation was almost complete in late 2009 when construction halted because, reportedly, a grading company declared bankruptcy. The owner and developer, JDH Capital, filed suit in 2011 against Food Lion and its owner/operator, Delhaize America Inc. Nothing apparently has been resolved; the town continues to monitor the site because of erosion problems.)
