Although Parks and Recreation Director Ruben Wall had drafted a possible ordinance banning concealed weapons in the playgrounds, athletic fields, picnic shelters and dog park in the town’s 10 parks as well as four park and community buildings, the Wake Forest commissioners decided not to consider enacting the ordinance after hearing from Wake Forest Police Captain Darren Abbacchi.
            “You can carry anywhere. This is legal,” he said, pointing at the gun on his right hip. But, he said, the people who have permits to carry concealed weapons are the law-abiding citizens who understand there are strict restrictions on that permit. (Later he said one of those restrictions is not carrying a weapon after the first sip of alcohol.)
            Abbacchi said the right to openly carry a gun is state law, but “The restriction on open carry in parks is something you can do.” He went on to say it might be necessary to ban open carrying anywhere in town, as Cary and Chapel Hill have done, in order to ban it in parks.
            Commissioner Frank Drake said that would begin intruding on people’s Second Amendment rights.
            Mayor Vivian Jones, who had appeared lukewarm at best to the proposed ordinance, said, “We will not address this at the present time.
            Abbacchi heads the patrol division.
            The board did vote to go ahead with applications for substantial state and federal funds to undertake six street/pedestrian/greenway projects. It is called Locally Administered Project Program (LAPP) and sponsored by the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization (CAMPO). The program calls for the town to invest only 20 percent of its funds in any project.
            The total cost of the six projects would be $1.26 million with the town obligated for $287,060.
            “Have you figured out a budget if we get approved without cutting our throats?” Commissioner Margaret Stinnett asked Finance Director Aileen Staples, who said, “We will work within the confines of what you guys approve. There’s no guarantee we’re going to get all these.” Later, she said, “We have enough fund balance to be able to” fund all these.
            “If we apply and get the grant (and find we do not have the money), then we can turn it down,” Jones said.
            When Drake appeared to be puzzled about the meaning of “leverage” in this funding scenario, Commissioner Peter Thibodeau said, “It’s finding funding vehicles to take the burden off the town.”
            The six projects for the LAPP funds are:
            * Stadium Drive – making it a complete street. The total project cost is estimated at $292,937.50 with the town’s 20 percent match $58,600. The work would include design and environmental approval for adding 4-foot bike lanes on each side of the three-lane street, a 10-foot wide multi-use path on the south side with a 5-foot wide sidewalk on the north side and a bus pull-out at the McDowell Drive intersection. Improving Stadium was a project in the 2005 streets and parks bond issue.
            * Priority Pedestrian Corridors: Oak Avenue and Wait Avenue – The joint proposal is to build a 2,095-foot multi-use path on the north side of Oak Avenue, loop it through green space across from E. Carroll Joyner Park and connect to an existing greenway in the park.
            On Wait Avenue, the proposal is to build a 2,530-foot sidewalk on the south side of Wait Avenue from North Allen Road to the future Dunn Creek Greenway in the Traditions subdivision, both of them in the planning stages. The plan would also install a pedestrian signal at the existing traffic signal at North Allen and Wait. The total project would cost $196,100, and the town’s 20 percent match would be $39,220.
            * Phase 2 of the Dunn Creek Greenway – This proposal moves beyond design and environment impact study (both included) to construction for a total cost of $456,800 with the town’s share $91,360. The greenway would have two arms, one connecting to Ledgerock Road in the Deacons Ridge subdivision and the other to Cardinal Crest Lane in the Cardinal Hills subdivision. The two arms would meet just north of the Dr. Calvin Jones Highway (N.C. 98 bypass) to merge with the existing part of the Dunn Creek Greenway. Part of the plan would provide lighting in the existing pedestrian culvert under the highway.
            During the Oct. 4 town board work session, Planning Director Chip Russell said, “We really would like that connection to downtown” the Dunn Creek plan would provide.
            * Smith Creek Greenway Phases 5 & 6 – These are the greenway sections, 1.5-miles in length to run southwest from White Carriage Drive in the Smith Creek subdivision down to Burlington Mills Road to meet an existing portion of the Smith Creek Greenway. The design and environmental parts of the plan will cost $489,400, $97,880 the town’s portion, and will include a pedestrian underpass at the replacement bridge on Ligon Mill Road the state Department of Transportation will build. The route takes it across substantial land that is owned by the town.
            This project would link the town to the planned bridge over the Neuse River where the Wake Forest greenway would link to the Mountains to the Sea Trail and Raleigh’s present and future greenways.