The Town of Wake Forest is involved in at least three current law suits, the largest being the case they have filed in Wake Superior Court by Heaton Construction of Roanoke Rapids claiming it is owed more money with a countersuit filed by the town asking for reimbursement and other considerations for the repairs necessitated by the defective work by Heaton’s subcontractors.
Heaton was the contractor for the new Wake Forest Town Hall which was completed in 2010, six months after the last revised completion date. The town has paid $494,139 to a firm which repaired the windows, roof and foundation where an engineering firm had found the defective areas.
Currently there is a court date of October 27 set for Wake Superior Court though it may be delayed. Efforts at mediation have failed.
The Wake Forest Town Board heard an update from town attorney Eric Vernon on Tuesday about the suit but no action was taken when the board returned from the closed session.
Coming up much sooner, on Sept. 2, is an appeal filed by Wake Forest developer Russell Gay and his partners in Ninety-Eight Bypass Associates, an appeal challenging the town board’s unanimous decision in August of 2013 to deny a special use permit for a 99-unit townhouse project between the N.C. 98 bypass (the Dr. Calvin Jones Highway) and Pineview Estates, the town’s first subdivision.
That plan in 2013 was a revision of a plan in August of 2012 which called for 102 units. That plan was unanimously denied by the town board, which later in the year unanimously denied an appeal to waive the six-month waiting period for the plan to be resubmitted.
The other suit waiting in the wings is one filed by downtown property owner Bob Johnson who says he has deeds showing he owns the land between the block of buildings that houses his Cotton Company and B&W Hardware. The town says it is part of the dedicated Owen Avenue and repaved it and reconfigured the parking as part of the South White Streetscape project.
A trial had already begun in Wake Superior Court when the judge became ill. “We do not have a new date for Bob Johnson’s trial yet. I had discussions with opposing counsel about dates, but we couldn’t agree on one and since then no further discussions have occurred,” attorney Charles George with Wyrick Robbins Yates & Pontoon, the law firm the town hires for its legal work, said this week.
