Tuesday night Wake Forest Town Manager Kip Padgett said an RFQ, request for qualifications, was sent for the design of the new Holding Park Pool on Sept. 12 with a due date of Monday, Sept. 26.
“Staff will evaluate and bring recommendations of a firm to the Board,” Padgett wrote in an email without specifying when the town board will hear those recommendations. They will meet Tuesday, Oct. 4, for their regular work session and could informally authorize staff to proceed or call a special meeting to make the decision.
Problems with the walls of the 1976 Holding Park Pool were found in May and further investigation found enough problems to keep the pool closed all summer. In August the town board heard recommendations which included building a new, smaller pool inside the current pool’s walls, demolishing the pool and building a sprayground, or demolishing the present pool and building a new pool on the same site. The commissioners were unable to come to a decision at that time and chose to wait for the results of a survey of town residents. However, they voted for a completely new pool early in September when initial survey results showed strong support for a community pool.
There were 1,275 people who responded to the townwide survey about the pool and its future. The survey ended Friday, Sept. 16, and the results continued to show strong support for a community pool and for a bond vote to build an aquatics center. Almost 70 percent of the respondents said it was important or very important to their family that the town have a community swimming pool; 84 percent said it was important or very important to the town to have a pool. Many of the respondents said they or their family did not use Holding Park Pool but 59 percent said they agreed or strongly agreed to supporting a bond referendum to build an indoor aquatics facility.
Padgett’s statements about the new pool came at the end of a very short meeting – an hour – after which the board went into a closed session with town attorney Eric Vernon during which they signed off on an agreement with town business owner Bob Johnson about a disputed property, authorized condemnation of a parcel of land for the Stadium Drive Complete Street Project, and conferred with Vernon about another undisclosed matter. The mayor and commissioners returned to the meeting chamber after the closed session and voted to authorize that condemnation and to approve the agreement with Johnson.
The dispute with Johnson arose in 2014 after the town had improved the extension of Owen Avenue across South White Street, a street-wide parcel of land running from South White east to the CSX Railroad line. The town paved that parcel and installed a transformer as part of the South White Streetscape.
Johnson filed suit in Wake County Superior Court saying that he had a deed from Gordon Welsh for that piece of property between The Cotton Company building and B&W Hardware. Welsh owned The Cotton Company building for several years and used it as the office and warehouse for his paper business.
The town said no, it was always a town street. Its stand was backed by a vote in the 1940s when the then-commissioners agreed that W.W. Holding could build a loading platform for his cotton business at the end of the street next to the rail line, indicating that he and the town agreed it was a town street.
In February of this year, shortly before the matter was to go to trial, attorney Charles George with Wyrick Robbins Yates & Ponton, the town’s law firm, said there was a “potential resolution that requires Board approval.” The possible resolution was on a first draft of the Feb. 16 town board meeting but gone by meeting time. The final resolution took another eight months.
Tuesday night the five town commissioners voted unanimously to pay $25,000 (minus some incidental fees) to Cameron Park LLC which consists of Bob Johnson, his wife, Elizabeth Johnson, and Christopher A. Roan. There were no comments except Padgett’s explanation that their vote would “unlock” the agreement to allow it to be public. The four documents are lengthy but mostly assure there will be no further actions by either side.
“The seniors and the senior center are real excited,” Mayor Vivian Jones said of another action, the purchase of 1.7 acres at the rear of the Northern Wake Senior Center that will be used for the planned expansion of the building. The town is paying $305,000 to the four owners: Ricky and Jane Wright and James and Carol Warren. The address for the land is 610 Brook Street because it fronts on the right-of-way for the street which has not been built yet.
Board members like Commissioner Jim Thompson were surprised that there has been no insurance coverage for the annual Christmas Historic Home Tour that covers the town, the Wake Forest Woman’s Club which helps organize the tour and the individual homeowners. “It’s never been an issue,” Jones said. Senior Planner Michelle Michael, the staff person for the Historic Preservation Commission, presented information about the quoted coverage, and the board approved a one-day general liability coverage of $2 million at a cost of $1,485.
There was also no discussion about a unanimous vote to establish the Wake Forest Business and Industrial Partnership with a three-person board that will be the nonprofit 501(c)3 vehicle to receive grants and other monies to further the town’s economic development activities. It will be staffed by town employees, headed by Economic Developer Jason Cannon. The three board members are Jonathan Hand, a banker at North State Bank; Beth Stout, who has real estate development experience; and Brett Hanna, an attorney.
At the close of the meeting, Commissioner Margaret Stinnett said it had come to her attention that there are no provisions in the Unified Development Ordinance about infill projects as they affect existing neighbors. She cited the construction of the Olde Wake Forest subdivision without naming it, saying one of the adjacent homeowners has large trees on his lot, trees that are eight feet from the property line but whose roots extend farther. Even with mulch, there will still be root damage from the heavy construction equipment. “I think we need to be a little more respectful of existing neighborhoods.” Jones said Assistant Planning Director Charlie Yokley could provide solutions at the Oct. 4 work session.
