‘We may not always agree, but we can respect each other’

Mayor Vivian Jones always gives an interesting speech each year at the State of the Town Address and Dinner hosted by Wake Forest Rotary. You can see what has caught her attention through the year – notably transportation in some or several forms every year – and contemplate the town’s advances – a renovated Northern Wake Senior Center, a new Joyner Park Community Center and the coming first full year of operations of the Holding Park Community Center.

She began by comparing today to the 1920s when women first enjoyed the power of voting, when there were advancements in manufacturing and when inventions made life easier in the home and at work, but she is not sure if all the changes are for the better. “I think we have actually passed the 1920s in becoming a self-centered society. Social media has allowed us to spout off ugly comments nonstop and we seem to love complaining and accusing the other fellow.

“I think maybe the world just needs a Snickers bar!”

However, you can’t keep a good mayor down, because her next words were about the town board and staff and how “we are looking for this to be a wonderful decade of going forward and keeping our community vibrant and resilient.” 2019 was of course another year of street construction – South White Street, Festival Street, Stadium Drive – but with it all about complete the town can look for ways to bring new development into downtown.

One achievement many of us enjoy is the 99.9 percent reliability rating Wake Forest Power has for its customers, the mayor said. When the power does go out, Wake Forest Power gets it back on within 34.1 minutes. Duke Energy gets power back on in 205 minutes, three and a half hours, and the state’s electric co-ops like Wake Electric take 145 minutes. Duke has 1.09 outage each year per customer per year, the co-ops average 1.3 while Wake Forest out performs at 0.68.

Jones gave us a striking example of how jobs and wealth have changed by talking about the three largest companies in America were all in Detroit where they employed about 1.2 million people. The companies were worth about $250 billion. In Silicon Valley today there are companies that together are worth $247 billion, but they only employ 137,000.

The mayor talked about our homegrown Wireless Research Center of North Carolina. That center has center stage in technology and advanced mobility, it leads the operation of the advanced wireless research platform at N.C. State and has become the birthplace of over 20 businesses in Wake Forest and over 60 in the Triangle.

Wireless also means autonomous vehicles, electric vehicles. The projection is that by 2030 60 percent of fleet vehicles will be electric and 40 percent of individual vehicles will run on batteries.

That’s if we buy a car or truck. “Before you know it, a lot of us will be buying transportation as a service instead of buying a car.” All of that means that the federal government, states, towns and cities will have to find new ways to build roads.

Jones immediately switched to a program the town board “has embraced and supports. That is the Capital Area Food Network.” Drew Brown, the town’s customer service manager, is the chairman of the Northern Community Food Security Team which has focused on providing people with access to food and providing a sustainable food supply. The town has supported its employees volunteering, it has donated laptops to local food pantries, worked with waste mitigation and composting, supported Tri-Area Ministries, and donated a truck to help with food delivery.

She praised the work of two women – Tilda Caudle and Joy Shillingsburg – who have led in efforts to build a summer nutrition program for children and meals for people of all ages throughout the year. Both have been named a Good Neighbor of the Year, and Caudle was honored with the Martin Luther King Jr. Distinguished Service Award at that celebration in January.

She talked transportation – the second loop bus which debuted this year, the free GoPass for seniors and teens and now Wake Tech students which allows them to ride for free on any bus, the Ligon Mill Road bridge replacement which will give the town the underpass for part of the Smith Creek Greenway. But, she said, the town is concentrating on smaller projects this year like improving intersections and connecting roads. DOT is working on a plan to provide smart traffic signals in town with active traffic monitoring.

The town adopted its first Comprehensive Transportation Plan which addresses all forms except flying, and she said the consultants were amazed at the amount of participation by town residents.

Two other plans are ripe for updating – the Community Plan and the Northeast Area Community Plan – both blueprints for the town’s future.

Because the General Assembly made drastic changes to planning regulations last year, Wake Forest has to change its processes and its Unified Development Ordinance. The town has changed its Planning Board Academy to a Citizens Planning Academy, and it is viewing possible changes to downtown regulations.

The commissioners and mayor have been talking about affordable housing. Aside from assisting Wake County Habitat for Humanity in building six more homes along Caddell Street, which the town changed from a dirt path to a paved street, the town is working with Focus Design Builders in a small subdivision, nine houses, off Allen Road. “We expect to be able to work with other builders in the future.”

And the fire department. Jones said little but the town staff is working hard to make its incorporation into town government seamless, a piece of cake.

Without ever saying why, the mayor noted that the town had to cancel its longtime Christmas Parade last December. “We can’t do anything about the past, but we can move forward and set an example for other communities, for our region and for our state to follow.” We want to see what the new rules for the parade will be.

Jones then went on to talk about how important it is to be able to understand others and to frame our words so they understand us. And, “We don’t always take the time to think about HOW what we say or post on social media is going to impact others. Instead, we sometimes say the first thing that comes to mind. Even though we may speak the same language, we come from different places and have different perspectives.”

She asked for the help of town residents as the town board and employees work hard to consider the needs and concerns of all our residents.

“We need your help and the help of everyone in our community to continue being a community that cares about each other and embraces and honors the wonderful diversity of our residents.

“Please join me in recognizing that we may not always agree but, at the very least, we can respect each other. If we all do that, think about the impact we can have on our community.”

But she didn’t end there. Instead, she said the town has a lot of volunteers and great civic clubs, and “We also have hundreds of people who don’t want to be members of clubs but want to do work to benefit others and make our community better.”

Her final thoughts: “Volunteering is the ultimate exercise in community. You vote in elections once a year but when you volunteer you vote every day about the kind of community you want to live in. Thank you for wanting to live in a great community and for helping to make our community great!”

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Mayor Jones’ State of the Town Address will be recorded and replayed on Wake Forest TV 10 throughout March. It will also be available in streaming video on the Town’s website at www.wakeforestnc.gov<http://www.wakeforestnc.gov>.

For more information about the 2020 State of the Town Address and Dinner, visit wakeforestnc.gov and search “State of the Town” or contact Communications & Public Affairs Director Bill Crabtree at 919-435-9421 or bcrabtree@wakeforestnc.gov<mailto:bcrabtree@wakeforestnc.gov>.

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