July 30, 2003: Board upholds Birthplace plans, 4-1
By a 4-1 vote Wednesday night, the Wake Forest Board of Adjustment upheld the Historic Preservation Commission’s action in granting a certificate of appropriateness to the Wake Forest College Birthplace Society to construct an exhibit/office/meeting building behind the Calvin Jones House on North Main Street.
It was unclear Thursday morning if the protesting neighbors plan to appeal that decision to Wake County Superior Court.
Wednesday night neighbor Steve Grissom said they needed some time to think about it, and his wife, Cheryl, said, “There’s still the rezoning.”
“We’re evaluating our options on how to proceed,” Nancy and Don Bates said in a statement issued Thursday. “We were disappointed” by the decision, they said. The Bates are the appellants of record against the commission’s decision; other North Main residents are helping with the legal costs of the appeal.
The Bates’ statement said they want to preserve the special character of the historic district. “We want to support the museum in its efforts to serve the community, but we believe the current approved design strays widely from the regulations governing construction” in the district.
“The Birthplace really still wants to work with its neighbors,” Susan Brinkley, president of the society, said. She referred to the column by former town resident Jim Jenkins in Thursday’s News & Observer, which also said the neighbors and the society “could probably get together without rancor and work this out.” Jenkins announced that the society has already lined up Wake Forest College alum Arnie Palmer to help turn the first spade of dirt for the building.
David Stark, who cast the dissenting vote, was concerned about the possible conflict of interest posed by Amy Pierce, an ex officio member of the commission.
Robert Hornik, a lawyer with the Brough Law Firm in Chapel Hill that is representing the Bates, said Pierce had not been appointed by the town board as required, had a conflict of interest because she was employed by the society as recently as October of 2002 and “dominated” the April 9 meeting when the commission granted the certificate.
Pierce, who has worked on a number of history related projects in town including the study for the Mill Village’s inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places, was reportedly named to the commission by town planner Agnes Wanman. Ex officio (by virtue of an office) members of any board are observers, not allowed to speak or to vote. Pierce did not vote on the certificate in April but she did speak.
Altogether, Hornik said, “There were procedural errors that so infected the historic preservation commission process that this board should throw out the certificate of appropriateness and send the case back to the historic preservation commission and make them do it right.”
The errors that Hornik said were in the commission’s record, aside from the problems surrounding Pierce noted above, included
- Hal Miller being replaced as chairman of the commission halfway through his two-year term. Hornik said Pierce called Jim Danku in December, asking if he would be chairman. Miller arrived late for the February meeting, Hornik said, and found a discussion underway about his replacement.
- moving the March meeting from one room in town hall to another without proper notice.
- failing to properly notify the Bates of the March meeting.
- allowing commission members Jim Crockett and Julie Ellis to vote on the certificate in April after missing the March meeting where the matter was discussed.
- the inadequacy of the record, particularly the tape recording of the April meeting where the presentation Donald Bates gave and comments from Nancy Bates were not included because of technical problems. There were gaps in the tape and garbled sections.
Eric Braun, an attorney with Womble Carlyle in Raleigh representing the society, attacked Hornik’s points, saying for the most part that the Bates – and by extension other complaining neighbors – had waived the issues by not objecting to them at the time. Also, Braun said, there were two letters in the file that were sent to landmark owners and residents in the historic district. Each lawyer had 20 minutes for a presentation, and Hornik, who spoke first, was given five minutes for rebuttal.
Although Crockett and Ellis were not at the March meeting, Braun said, there was a “full and fair hearing” held April 9 that included a revised staff report, testimony from an expert witness, the society’s architect Ed Bouldin, and a full hearing of all the comments from district residents and others. “The record shows that more folks spoke at the April meeting than at the March,” Braun said.
Braun did not address Pierce’s participation in the April meeting. Later, when the board of adjustment members were discussing that point, member Lyman Franklin said, “We don’t know what questions she was asked.” Pierce, from the audience, said, “Would you like to ask me?”
Braun did say that the architect and the speakers for the society in April provided substantive, informed testimony about the planned building. Also, he said, the staff twice provided detailed information to the commission members.
“The applicants (the Bates) made statements of opinion of the impact of this addition to their property,” Braun said. There was no expert testimony from the Bates, he said, and no data presented to back up their opinions.
“This (the commission’s decision) was not arbitrary and capricious,” Braun said.
Braun also said the handbook often referred to by Hornik was published by a state agency and intended as a guide. It had never been adopted by the Wake Forest commission. And a requirement in the handbook for verbatim minutes did not apply, Braun said. “A verbatim transcript has never been required by any court of law in North Carolina for a quasi-judicial hearing.”
The board of adjustment members, led by Chairman Tom Littleton, wove in and out of the various claims, with Littleton noting several times that they had no information about various points such as whether commission chairman Jim Danku or planner Wanman made sure at the beginning of the April 9 meeting that there were no conflicts of interest.
“There were some indications two people were ineligible to vote,” Littleton said, referring to Crockett and Ellis. However, Littleton went on, a quorum of the commission is five members. With a vote of 6-1, the effect would have been the same had the two not voted.
The record showed, the board agreed, that notification letters about the meetings had been sent to the district residents, though Littleton noted there was no way to tell whether the letters were delivered.
The board members also agreed that all parties had an opportunity to speak at the April meeting, that there was substantial information provided about the proposal and there was notification of the two meetings.
“We have to go on the minutes and the information we are provided,” Littleton said.
Based on that, board member Kenille Prosser made motion, seconded by Pam Grubbs, to uphold the commission’s decision.
After the meeting, alternate Jonathan Bivens looked at the thick packet of written information the board of adjustment members were given during the past two weeks. Also, he said just as Prosser said several times, Wednesday night’s question was entirely different from the matters the board usually handles. To help, Bivens said, the town’s planning staff held several training sessions for the board members to help their understanding. Bivens and the other alternate, Bob Bridges, stayed to hear the entire meeting.
Once the appeal is settled – either through a proceeding in Wake County Superior Court or by negotiation – the birthplace society still has to request a change in the town’s zoning ordinance to allow museums in at least the residential 10 district and then a special use permit to allow the construction.
Binkley said Thursday the society had tried to work with the neighbors. “We thought we should start with those four surrounding us.” Those would be the Grissoms, Kathleen Lake (who owns the building where her husband had his medical practice), the Millers and George and Martha Mackie. The Mackies could represent Lake since George is her son. Binkley said they invited those neighbors to a meeting last October and the only criticism Ethel Miller had was about the parking, which was subsequently moved to the back.
Also, Binkley said, when she briefly told the commission about their plans in January, “We did not hear any criticism. Hal Miller was there and he had nothing but praise.” Ethel Miller said Thursday the couple did not have any comment.
Binkley said the society paid for the court stenographer who took a verbatim record of Wednesday night’s meeting. “We couldn’t afford not to” given the possibility of further appeal.
July 28, 2004: 10,000-plus unbuilt homes in the WF pipeline
26 percent growth projected for 2005
Wake Forest can expect that more than 10,000 homes will be built within the town’s limits in the next 12 years.
Planning Director Chip Russell gave town commissioners a draft spreadsheet Friday afternoon listing all the lots the town has approved or can anticipate asking for approval through 2015, a total of 10,127.
At 2.2 people per household, that would mean adding 22,279 town residents to today’s population of 17,607.
Most startling, Russell projected that 2,138 single-family homes, apartments and townhouses could be built in 2005.
That burst of activity would result in a 26 percent increase in dwelling units in just one year.
For comparison, there were 7,140 homes of all types in town at the end of 2003.
Russell estimates 951 homes will be built in 2004, and the town had issued 450 building permits through the end of June. Russell said the 951 figure could go down near 800, depending on the start date for some apartments.
Russell’s figures were at variance with Deputy Town Manager Roe O’Donnell’s remarks during the morning session of the town board retreat in Raleigh.
O’Donnell estimated the town would have an 8 percent growth rate through the end of 2005 and then slow down to a 4 percent growth rate.
With those growth rates, O’Donnell assured the board the town would not need more than the 4.71 million gallons of water a day for the first five years of merger. That is the 2.71 mgd of capacity it has purchased from Raleigh plus the 2 mgd the town water plant can provide during high demand.
That appeared to surprise Russell, who left for another meeting, then returned with the spreadsheet in the afternoon.
“There’s no way we’re going to grow at less than 10 percent a year in the next few years,” Mayor Vivian Jones said to O’Donnell.
After Russell distributed the spreadsheet midway through the afternoon session, Commissioner David Camacho said at least twice, “This is great information to have. I honestly wish I’d seen something like this a couple years ago.”
After looking at the spreadsheet, O’Donnell made some calculations and said, “We could connect 3,000 more homes” with the 4.71 mgd water allotment.
That would be 600 new homes a year, Town Manager Mark Williams said, “assuming we do not buy any additional (water) capacity.”
After the big boom year of 2005, Russell projected 1,592 homes in 2006, 1,251 homes in 2007, 1,137 in 2008 and 1,055 in 2009. The numbers only fall below 1,000 homes a year in 2010.
2010 would end the five-year period during which the town would have to buy more water capacity under merger. Raleigh is now proposing the town grow at a 4 percent rate for 10 years beginning in 2010 and slow to a 3 percent rate for the following 10 years.
During the morning session Williams said again the town has to begin to slow its growth.
“We can’t produce the money to build the facilities fast enough” to keep on growing at the present rate, Williams said.
Those facilities include roads and parks that the town pays for, schools that are a county responsibility, personnel like policemen and firemen that are paid for by the town and the state-built and maintained highways and roads.
“Do we believe what Mark just said?” Jones asked the four commissioners at the retreat: Camacho, Velma Boyd-Lawson, Rob Bridges and Chris Malone. Stephen Barrington was absent.
“It’s almost as if we can’t say no,” Boyd said.
Can we slow growth or water use?
Russell reminded the board the town is using borrowed water now. During June, traditionally a high-usage month, water customers used about 3 mgd. The town can typically produce 1.2 mgd at its water plant and up to 2 mgd for short periods, it has a permanent contract for 960,000 gallons a day from Raleigh and it has a contract with Raleigh for another 1.75 mgd that ends in August of 2007. The town must either allow Raleigh to own its water and sewer systems or build the Neuse River intake and expand the water plant.
“We don’t have the flexibility about approving any more development if we’re in temporary water,” Jones said.
The town could purchase 1.5 mgd more of capacity and add another 3,000 connections, O’Donnell said. That would cost $4.5 million and would be added to the merger cost, bumping it from $14 million to $18.5 million, and add about two more years to the transition period, increasing it to eight.
“The cost of merger may go way up before we approve any more” developments, Camacho said.
In addition, using that much water, 6.21 mgd, would add to the amount of wastewater going to the town’s sewer plant.
O’Donnell warned the increase could mean the town would have to get underway with plant expansion plans during the first five years of merger, a time when the town would have to pay the $4 to $5 million for the expansion. O’Donnell said he had earlier juggled some figures in the merger planning so that the entire Raleigh merged system would pay for the expansion.
In a related but non-merger cost, the town will have to purchase additional capacity in Raleigh wastewater plant soon. Less than a year ago, Wake Forest purchased 800,000 gallons of capacity per day for the entire Richland Creek basin on the west side of town. The use is getting close to the 800,000 gallons. The cost will be at least $3.50 a gallon, and there has not been a determination how much capacity to purchase.
Russell said the water usage figure per home that O’Donnell was using, 450 gallons a day, was high. But at the same time Russell also said Heritage Wake Forest, which negotiated a contract for 400,000 gallons a day in 1999, is close to that usage with less than a third of its homes built.
Some Heritage homes use 700 gallons a day because the owners irrigate their lawns, O’Donnell said.
Once the commissioners knew there would be enough water for 600 homes each year for the next five years, they began figuring how to limit building to 900 homes a year, apparently planning to purchase more Raleigh water and/or limit water use.
“We have to decide how many permits are we going to let through the gate in a given year,” Camacho said, “if we’ve only got 900 taps to give out.”
O’Donnell said they could raise the sewer availability fee as the town’s consulting firm, Raftelis, recommended, a measure that might tamp down demand.
Instead, Boyd and others said they preferred requiring developers to pay the availability fees upfront in the planning process. The town now requires the fees be paid at the end of the process, when building permits are issued, which puts the burden on the builder, not the developer.
Williams suggested limiting the number of building permits for a single subdivision to fewer than 50 per year, but Camacho said that would encourage large-scale developers to break land down into tiny little subdivisions. “You won’t have all the infrastructure you want the way you want it.” The roads, schools, soccer fields and commercial centers would not have been built in Heritage, Camacho said, if Andy Ammons had been limited to fewer than 50 building permits a year.
Water conservation measures like odd/even days for watering lawns, separate water taps for irrigation and banning the use of fescue for lawns were suggested as ways to reduce water use.
Russell suggested only scheduling one subdivision request before the planning board every three months or six months “to get some distance between startup times.” Or, he said, the board could target different areas in town for development and accelerate those requests that include major benefits like a connector street.
Even if the town retains its water and sewer independence, Camacho said, they will still have to require upfront payment of the water and wastewater availability fees.
Russell agreed he will provide the board with a quarterly update of approved building permits and estimates of building for each future year.
Jones said the board needs to know how much water it can purchase from Raleigh for the five-year period without making it necessary to begin expanding the sewer plant. “We’ll try to live within that,” she said.
The board will discuss the water capacity purchase at its work session Tuesday, Aug. 3, at 5:30 p.m. in town hall.
July 27, 2005: Adams asks highway zoning for former Parker-Hannifin plant
Jim Adams, the president of Millridge Company and St. Ives Commercial 200 LLC in Wake Forest, will ask the planning board Tuesday night, Aug. 2, to recommend rezoning the former Parker-Hannifin plant and land and an adjoining 20 acres he owns to conditional use highway business.
All the land would fall under the provisions of the Falls Lake Watershed Overlay District approved by the town board in June.
Adams said this week he hopes to close on the property within 90 days. He has not disclosed his intentions for the property, but a web site says he intends mixed commercial, retail and office uses.
Since P-H closed its operations in 2002, the P-H plant and land has been a hot property because of its flat topography and location on Wake Union Church Road right next to U.S. 1 (Capital Boulevard).
Adams has had the 34 acres where the plant stands under contract for about 18 months while negotiating with the company and with the state Division of Waste Management in the Department of Environment and Natural Resources. Some of the soil and groundwater is contaminated because Schrader dumped an unknown amount of trichloroethylene (TCE), a cleaning solvent, during the 1960s and 1970s. At that time, dumping the solvent was the accepted disposal method.
Since 1991 P-H has been spending a reported $150,000 a year to remove the chemical using a water remediation process – pumping out the underground water and aerating it to allow the TCE to dissipate. P-H has agreed to indemnify a new owner for the clean-up cost.
At least one plume of groundwater with TCE has been found on a neighboring property, but tests on the wells in Tarlton Park subdivision on Kearney Road in 2002 found them clear of the chemical. Adams’ subdivision, St. Ives, adjoins P-H to the west. P-H has built sampling wells around the former plant.
The Division of Waste Management will hold a public hearing about a renewal permit for the TCE cleanup on Wednesday, Aug. 10, at 6 p.m. in the courtroom at the Wake Forest Police Station. Cathy Akroyd, a spokesman for the division, said issues involved with the cleanup have been settled and the last step is for the financial assurance from P-H to be put in place. Public comment about that will last through Aug. 25.
Public comment has ended about the Brownfields agreement, Akroyd said. “The North Carolina Brownfields program encourages the safe reuse of abandoned properties that have some measure of environmental impairment,” the division’s web site says. “Under a ‘brownfields agreement’ with a prospective developer, DENR defines the necessary cleanup and land management actions, and the prospective developer receives liability protection that allows him/her to obtain previously unobtainable loans for the project.” For more information about the Brownfields program, go to http://www.ncbrownfields.org.
Plant and land owned by the IDC
Along with the TCE clean-up, the purchase of the property poses another issue because it is not owned by P-H. The Wake Forest Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) has owned the land and building since 1964, and P-H leases it for $12,000 a year under a 40-year lease negotiated in 1984.
The town set up the IDC in 1964 to persuade what was then called Schrader Brothers to establish the town’s first industry. The IDC issued bonds to purchase the former Jenkins farm property and construct the building. Schrader paid off the bonds in the following 20 years.
But in 1984, when the property was supposed to revert to the town, the town commissioners declined to accept the deed, preferring to benefit from the property taxes. The IDC retained ownership and continued the lease, renewable annually for 40 years, at a much reduced rate.
Schrader and later P-H have paid all the property taxes, which in 2004 amounted to $23,401.67. The property is valued at $4.3 million, according to the Wake County tax records.
During the years the governing board for the IDC has shrunk from five to two members: attorney John Rich and John Wooten Jr., who is retired.
In late 2002, Glenn Boyd, who owns Crossroads Ford in Cary and Wakefield Ford on Capital Boulevard, took an option on the P-H property and asked for a special use permit to operate an indoor car dealership.
That request ran into a two-month delay due to several road changes the town’s transportation consultant firm, Kimley-Horn, proposed because Capital Boulevard will become a restricted-access freeway at some point.
One of the Kimley-Horn plans would have extended Wake Union Church Road into the parking lot on the north side of the P-H property and then doubled the road back to the intersection with Capital. The shape resembled an old-fashioned hair pin. The stated reason was to allow for more traffic buildup at the intersection.
Kimley-Horn also planned a collector road across the west side (back) of the P-H property from Wake Union Church Road to a lot on the north side owned by Adams.
The planning board, with Frank Drake voting no, recommended approval by the town board with the proviso the road improvements be worked out by Planning Director Chip Russell and Boyd.
When the town board met, Russell said he recommended different road configurations. Under those, Boyd would have had to dedicate a 70-foot right-of-way on the north side of the plant property for a future extension of Agora Drive and another 70-foot right-of-way dedication on the west property line for the future relocation of Wake Union Church Road. Both roads would have provided access to properties Adams owns.
Rich, on behalf of the IDC, urged the board to approve the permit without the dedications, which would have taken about 6 acres of the land. Those roads would also disturb the soil and water contaminated with TCE while Boyd’s plans, Rich said, would not disturb the affected area.
Russell said the dedications would take only 2.76 acres.
“The auto dealership there may not be the best use if they will not comply with our transportation plan,” Commissioner Rob Bridges said before voting with the other four commissioners to deny the request. The transportation plan, which was adopted in January of 2003 called for relocating Wake Union Church Road behind the P-H plant.
When he asked for the special use permit for the P-H property in 2003, Boyd was operating Wakefield Ford at the intersection of Capital Boulevard and South Main Street. Since then, he has moved the dealership farther south on Capital to its intersection with Burlington Mills Road. The town rezoned the 22 acres in that tract to highway business in 2001, but Boyd’s plans for a dealership there at that time fell apart, reportedly because the state Department of Transportation required several improvements for the Capital Boulevard freeway plan.
Boyd also purchased the former Weavexx plant in April of this year and reportedly plans another car dealership there. He is currently demolishing some or all of the plant building.
Adams’ request will be one of four public hearings Tuesday night. Both the planning and the town boards are present at the public hearings, and the town board has the final vote. The meeting begins at 7:30 p.m. in town hall.
There are two rezoning requests for property along Chalk Road.
Heritage Club Properties, an Andy Ammons company, owns the land and wants to rezone the 12 acres from rural holding to R-20, residential lots of 20,000 square feet or more. The vacant land is in the 1100 block on the west side.
Priest, Craven & Associates of Raleigh wants to rezone 13 acres at 1120 Chalk Road from rural holding and industrial district to conditional use R-5, residential lots of 5,000 square feet or more. The land, which includes a house, is owned by Chalks Road Developers, also an Andy Ammons company. The tax information for both Chalk Road properties is under review.
Information about the fourth public hearing is in the article about the Renaissance Plan in this edition.
July 26, 2006: Growth makes rapid change in top taxpayers
With new businesses cropping up, new shopping centers planned or underway, new subdivisions around each corner, new names keep popping into the top ten list of Wake Forest taxpayers.
In 2005, the name that topped the list at number one was WR of Wake Forest LLC, the owner of the Wal-mart Superstore on South Main Street. The assessed value for the property – the store and two other parcels in Wake Pointe shopping center – is $20.8 million with a tax bill of $112,484.28. WR of Wake Forest was incorporated in North Carolina in 2003 by WRS Inc., a partnership led by T. Scott Smith of Aiken, S.C.
Time Warner Entertainment, the cable company, leaped from number 11 in 2004 to number two in 2005 because its property increased from $6.8 million to $19.9 million. The increase had to come from cable and other improvements because the two listed properties, land on Harris Road and the office on South White Street, remained the same.
Number three on the list is not a new name. KF US-1 LLC headed the list in 2004 and been among the top ten for years. The corporation owns Caveness Farms Apartments on Capital Boulevard, and its principals are David Falk of Drucker & Falk in Raleigh and Bernard Kayden of New York State. The assessed value for 2005 was $16.5 million.
2005 should be the last year Weavexx is on the list since the buildings have been razed and the land filled to make way for a car dealership. But in 2005 it was still listed with a $13 million value. Weavexx does continue to lease office space in Wake Forest.
Lowes Home Center was number five on the list in 2004, its first year of operation, and remains at the same spot with a $13 million value. It’s big-box rival – Home Depot on Retail Drive across Capital Boulevard – is number 17 with a value of $6 million.
Number six on the top ten list is Target Corporation for the Target Superstore on Retail Drive valued at $12.5 million.
Number seven is MLC Automotive LLC, Michael Leith’s corporation which owns the Chris Leith Dodge dealership on Star Road and leases the land for the Kia dealership at the corner of South Main and Capital Boulevard. The assessed value rose from $7.6 million in 2004 to $11.4 million in 2005.
Granite Properties & Management, a partnership between Jim Adams, the Wake Forest developer, and Ken Goetze of Zebulon, is number eight on the list. At the beginning of 2005 the company owned $11.2 million in apartment buildings in Flaherty Farms subdivision, but those were sold in 2005 to a new corporation, Flaherty Farms LLC, created by Adams and Goetze.
Number nine is a newcomer to the top ten, The Factory LLC, valued at $9.8 million. The company running the former Athey streetsweeper plant was formed by Jeff Ammons of Wake Forest and James Lucas of Chapel Hill.
Rounding out the top ten is Carolina Telephone with assets of $8.3 million, an increase since last year when its assets were worth $6.9 million.
At the beginning of each year the county lists the top 50 taxpayers for Wake County and for each municipality for the previous year along with a number of reports.
All of the information about Wake Forest, as well as Wake County and its other municipalities, in available at http://www.wakegov.com under Tax, Property & Deeds. For information about the property owners, go to http://www.secretary.state.nc.us and search under corporations.
July 25, 2007: Drought covers most of the state
Almost all of North Carolina is now classified as being in a drought, ranging from extreme to severe in the western counties, moderate for the broad middle of the state out to the coast, with only a few coastal counties rated as extremely dry.
You can see this week’s updated drought monitor map from the Division of Water Resources by going to http://www.ncwater.org/Drought_Monitoring.
The rainfall deficits proved by the National Weather Service tell the story. As of July 23, there was a 14.58-inch deficit in Wilmington, a 10.45-inch deficit at Cape Hatteras, a 10.16-inch deficit at Asheville, and a 7.01-inch deficit in Greensboro. The Raleigh-Durham area posted only a 3.86-inch deficit, thanks to some recent rain events.
The level at Falls Lake, the sole water supply for more than 350,000 people in Raleigh, Wake Forest, Rolesville, Garner, Knightdale, Wendell and Zebulon, has been falling all summer and Wednesday morning had dipped to 248.93 feet above mean sea level. The normal level is 251.5 feet.
On Monday, when the lake level 249.1, Terry Brown, the water control manager for the Wilmington District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers which owns and operates the lake and dam, said 75 percent of the normal water supply remained.
Part of the new water conservation plan Raleigh has adopted calls for the city to impose stricter water rules when the water supply is at 70 percent or below. Those Stage 1 rules limit lawn irrigation to one day a week and ban vehicle washing except on Saturdays and Sundays.
The Stage 2 rules, which can be imposed when there is 50 percent of the water supply, ban all outdoor watering and restrict vehicle washing to car washes the city has certified as using water conservation practices.
Currently, residents and businesses in the city and all the towns that use its water are supposed to be following the mandatory year-round permanent water rules which ban outdoor watering on Mondays and restrict watering to three days a week on an odd-even system.
Many, many people do not appear to have heard about the new watering rules, though Wake Forest’s Deputy Town Manager Roe O’Donnell sees some improvement. “I think what we’re starting to see is fewer people watering on the wrong day.” However, “We did see some watering today (Monday).”
Across the water system, the water inspectors have issued well over 300 notices of violation and at least one $50 fine.
There has not been much of a drop in usage, especially when the temperature is over 90 degrees.
During the week of July 16, there were two days when Wake Forest residents used 4.5 million gallons, close to the 4.91-mgd limit for peak use until 2010 that is part of the town’s merger contract with Raleigh.
“This week looks a little better,” O’Donnell said, but the heat and humidity have abated for a time.
Last month O’Donnell told the town board the town would most likely have to purchase additional water capacity from Raleigh in 2009. The amount the town will have to purchase can be from 800,000 to 1.5 million gallons depending on water use. The current cost of water capacity is $5 a gallon.
The town board has passed a resolution strongly discouraging the use of treated drinking water for outdoor irrigation in new and existing subdivisions, and many of the newer subdivisions have accepted a condition that they use only water from wells or ponds.
One deterrent to lawn irrigation is the $2,500 cost. Raleigh has begun requiring a second separate meter for irrigation, and Wake Forest requires a $1,630.14 impact fee for that meter.
July 24, 2008: Everyone excited about bus service
Raleigh’s mayor, Charles Meeker, rode an express bus to Monday morning’s dedication ceremony for the new Wake Forest bus service.
With three buses standing along South White Street, Meeker said, “This is a new day for transit in Wake County with three buses right here in downtown Wake Forest.”
Then he turned toward state Sen. Neal Hunt, who had just arrived, and said the city and transit organizations need more funding sources from the General Assembly and he hoped that bill will be re-introduced in January.
Successful cities and communities are those that adapt to changing times, Meeker said, and “We are trying to be in the forefront.” He said they hoped to extend bus service to other Wake County towns.
Vinnie DeBenedetto, a Holly Springs town council member, said he was there to find out how to get bus service to his town, 15 miles from Raleigh.
Wake Forest Mayor Vivian Jones introduced everyone who had a hand in making the express and local bus service possible, and she singled out Thelma Wright, the owner of the land at the corner of South White and Elm Avenue where the express bus parking lot is located. Jones thanked Wright “for graciously letting us use it.”
Jones also told a bitter-sweet story. For several years Wake Forest resident Anne O’Neal called her three or four times a year to say there are a number of older and disabled town residents who have no or limited ways to get to a grocery store or other services. Jones would agree with her about the need, explain to her that “we’re working on it” and that setting up a bus service can be expensive and difficult.
“Anne died this year just before we announced the bus service,” Jones said. Then she introduced Anne’s widower, Bob O’Neal, who was in the audience with several family members.
David King, the general manager for Triangle Transit, said the Wake Forest bus service was an instance when “everyone played well together” to make it a reality.
It took a lot of coordination between the Town of Wake Forest, specifically Director of Engineering Eric Keravuori who even timed the routes, the City of Raleigh whose CAT buses run the express route from town to downtown Raleigh, and Triangle Transit, which operates the loop bus around town.
Jones also thanked the town’s street and public works departments. The street department built the graveled parking lot, and the staff of the public works department cut the grass on the remainder of the lot. After the rain over the weekend, Jones said, they saw the grass had grown so they were out at 7 a.m. Monday cutting it again.
There were biscuits, pastry, fruit and beverages provided by The Forks Cafeteria, the tent was a shield from Monday’s fierce sun, but the growing heat cut short some of the after-event socializing.
July 24, 2008: Communication is key, new fire chief says
When he was hired last week, the Wake Forest Fire Department directors gave the new chief, Alfred E. Lynn, a mission: Improve the image of the department.
Chief Lynn’s chosen method, one he has used for 34 years with the Raleigh Fire Department: Communication.
He plans to talk with everyone, and he began his first day on the job, Monday, by going up the street to the dedication ceremony for the new Wake Forest bus service. Deputy Chief David Davis introduced him to town officials, town staff and town residents, though Lynn has known a number of Wake Forest people for years through the fire service and because he and his wife, Ann, who is also retired from the Raleigh department, live near town on Ligon Mill Road.
Lynn did not wait until Monday to begin communicating. He had spoken with Town Manager Mark Williams before then and had also talked with Planning Director Chip Russell about coordinating for the new subdivisions and streets so firefighters would not be out some dark night, trying to find a new street to answer a call.
He is going to be sure the fire department directors and the firefighters communicate. Each Sunday the 12 captains are to write a report about what happened on their shifts that week, and Lynn will give the reports to the directors at their monthly meeting. He will, in turn, report to the firefighters about the directors’ actions.
He would like to speak to local organizations about the fire department. He plans to attend town board meetings whether or not there is anything about the fire department on the agenda. He plans to meet with Mayor Vivian Jones and with the town commissioners. Lynn already knew Commissioner Margaret Stinnett and her husband, Richard, a former volunteer firefighter and director, and Commissioner Frank Drake, who is the liaison to the fire department.
And Lynn does not stand on formality. “Call me Freddy,” he says when he meets someone.
Drake told his fellow commissioners last week that Police Chief Greg Harrington, who helped interview the candidates, was a skilled interrogator.
“You know you’re in trouble when there are twenty people in the room and you’re sitting across from the police chief and the local funeral director,” Lynn said about the interview process. “They wore me out.” Randy Bright is one of the owners of Bright Funeral Home and a fire department director.
Lynn is a native of Wake County with long ties to the area. “I’ve been here all my life.” Lynn Road in Raleigh was named for his grandfather, who was called Tuck but has his full name, Kentucky Texas High Lynn, on his gravestone.
Lynn attended Millbrook School for nine years, but then the city annexed the area where his family lived and he ended his high school years at Broughton, graduating from there.
He has been with the Raleigh Fire Department for 34 years, and spent the last 12 years as a captain, the training chief. At the same time he spent 30 years, five of them as chief, volunteering with the Six Forks Fire Department, which has been absorbed into the Bay Leaf Department, and he was a charter member of the Six Forks Rescue Squad.
His wife, Ann, retired as a captain also, and had been in charge of education for the Raleigh department.
Lynn plans some changes in the department, beginning with training the ladder company to staff the aerial truck.
Monday the truck was in the parking lot with the aerial ladder fully extended, two men in the large bucket and one on the truck. They were practicing making smooth moves with the different controls.
“We will have the aerial truck fully in service by September one,” Lynn said, with state certification, training and a full-fledged ladder company of four men. “Ideally it would be five, but I can’t afford but four.”
That truck, he said, “is the Mercedes Benz of aerial trucks.” It is a complete fire-fighting unit in itself with water in the tank, hoses, ground ladders and the aerial ladder. In addition, it also has fans to fight heat and smoke, large lanterns for light at a night scene and salvage equipment, the tarps firefighters can throw over furniture to save it from water damage.
“They do all the dirty stuff,” Lynn said of the ladder company, and he added that in northern fire departments the ladder companies are the elite.
They looked for one and ended with two
Thursday night when Stanley Denton, chairman of the fire board, introduced Lynn to the department and to the public, he also introduced a second hire, Ron Early of Portsmouth, Va.
Lynn and Early were the two top candidates identified in the selection process.
At the same time, Stanley and others said, the board had realized “the need for more administrative staff for a department our size.” The department will soon add nine more paid personnel and will open a third station in the spring.
Because of that need and the need to provide for internal advancement and promotion, the directors have hired Early as the administrative deputy chief, joining David Davis and Clifton Keith. Davis is the deputy chief for the paid staff, Keith for the volunteer staff.
Early will join the department Aug. 11.
There was an error in the list of the fire directors as reported in the Gazette last week. The current directors are Denton, Bob Bridges, James Holding, Don Griesedieck, Randy Bright, Bill Wandrack, Dean Tryon and Thomas Walters. There is one vacancy.
