Town Manager Mark Williams and the town department heads have compiled the annual Capital Improvement Plan that calls for spending $8.8 million during the 2010-2011 fiscal year, almost $13 million in the next five years.
            Public comments about the CIP will be heard Tuesday night, March 16, at the regular town board meeting.
            The CIP is a wish list, but one where wishes do come true in future budgets. Next Thursday night, March 18, the town commissioners will meet at 5:30 p.m. to discuss what their spending priorities are.
            There are 17 items on the draft top priority list Williams presented:  
            -- $2 million this coming year and $2 million next year for street resurfacing and maintenance on existing streets, and those figures are estimates only. A study by the Institute of Transportation Research and Education found a significant number of the town’s streets need to be resurfaced or rebuilt. There were funds in last year’s budget for an engineer to compute cost estimates. Engineering Director Eric Keravuori noted the last major street maintenance project was in 1998.
            -- $1.7 million to re-align Chalks Road on Jones Dairy Road to meet the entrance to the Bowling Green subdivision. Engineering has been done, land acquisition is nearly complete, and the commissioners are expected to approve a construction contract soon.
            -- About $2 million this coming year and $1.2 million next year to complete the South White Streetscape. Planning Director Chip Russell’s comments were: “Lessons learned in Phase 1 result in a recommendation that the work along White Street be done in two phases rather than three to minimize impacts on downtown merchants. The master plan will be analyzed to see if it is possible to achieve accessibility without loss of on-street parking. Pavers will be re-evaluated.”
            -- $1.5 million spread over five years to pave the town’s dirt streets. The amount was based on the cost estimates from Appian, an engineering firm. Carter and Mangum streets would be paved in the upcoming year with Farm and Farm Ridge the year after, Spring Valley in 2012-2013, Caddell, Dunn and Sycamore in 2013-2014, ending with Allen, Brewer and Walnut the fifth year.
            -- A town with the population and area Wake Forest has should have five fire stations that would allow for a five-minute response time. However, “It’s probably not going to happen in the near future. The money isn’t there,” Fire Chief A.E. “Freddie” Lynn said. Instead, he wants $450,000 in the coming fiscal year to purchase an engine that will replace a 22-year-old piece of equipment. After that, he added $3 million in future years for a new station on the west side of town complete with equipment and staffing, with another $4 million five years on for the east side station. His calculations are roughly $500,000 for land, $2 million to build the station, $500,000 for equipment and half a million each year to pay the staff.
            Any plans for the west side station are in limbo now that Judge Carl Fox has upheld the town’s refusal to allow for the Wake Union Place shopping center where property owner Jim Adams had reserved a two-acre site for the station. “We’re not even looking over there,” Lynn said when asked if the department had an eye on a site on the east side of town.
            The Wake Forest Fire Department is an independent corporation established in 1983 from the separate town and rural fire departments. In that same year the new entity entered a contract with the town to provide fire protection. It also contracts with Wake County for similar service in the subdivisions and land outside town in the Wakette Fire District.
            Lynn said the fire board has even considered moving Station 1 northward from its present location on East Elm to provide more coverage to the north and east parts of town. But, he said, that would mean a bigger station on more land. “The finances are not there. Until the economy turns around and the tax base picks up, we’re not going to do anything.”
            Station 2 is on Ligon Mill Road, and the newest station, #3 on Forestville Road, was completed in 2009. The service area, inside and out of town, is about 44 square miles where 40,000 people live. Fifty paid firemen with 25 volunteers man the stations and drive the fire trucks. The importance of the volunteers and of training is reflected in the chain of command under Chief Lynn where Ron Early is the deputy chief of administration, Waylon Holbrook is the training chief, Clifton Keith is the deputy chief for volunteers, Daryl Cash is the services chief, and David Davis is the deputy chief for operations.
            The current contract with Wake Forest, 10 cents of the 51-cent property tax, gave the department $3,387,573 this year. The town has also imposed a fire protection impact fee on new construction since December of 2007, and in the first year and a half collected $442,270 for the fire department’s capital costs including Station 3.
            You can help improve the local economy on East Elm and go to the fire department’s annual fish fry Friday, April 16, from 11 a.m. on. It is a bargain at $8 a plate and it helps the department’s finances.
            -- The town will spend $381,000 on greenway trails and design in the coming year, over $3 million in the five-year period. Along with general fund money and bond money, Parks and Recreation Director Susan Simpson plans to tap grant funds from the federal level on down and listed only the town’s matching portion of the grants in the $3 million.
            The trails include a connector along Smith Creek to Raleigh’s Neuse River Trail on the south side of the river, a downtown connector from the Calvin Jones Highway pedestrian culvert to Ledgestone Drive in Deacon’s Ridge, the soft trails and boardwalk/bridge crossings around the reservoir, trails and sidewalk connections from Rogers Road to Heritage South, and the Paschal Golf Course trail from Durham Road to Stadium Drive.
            -- The town would spend almost a million dollars this coming year, $4.6 million over five years, to build new sidewalks along Forestville Road, Oak Avenue, Harris Road, Wait Avenue, Stadium Drive, Rogers Road, Heritage Lake Road, Durham Road, and Ligon Mill Road, all to implement the top priority of the pedestrian plan. An alternative for the town’s spending would be to spend $307,000 this coming year for the engineering plans and hold them in anticipations of additional grant funds. “Many of these sidewalk sections are critical missing pieces needed for efficient and safe pedestrian access to schools and work. In many cases, there are foot-worn paths indicating many pedestrians are striving to walk in a hostile environment,” Planning Director Chip Russell noted.
            -- There are two items for the town’s loop bus service, $225,000 to make up for the grant funding which will end June 30, and $14,000 for bus shelters. The amount the town will pay for the bus service may change after negotiations with Raleigh’s CAT system. The $14,000 would pay for two bus shelters.
            -- Police Chief Jeff Leonard wants to replace one K-9 unit each year -- $16,000 for each trained dog although Sixx, who died recently, may be replaced using forfeited drug money – as well as add four or five patrol vehicles each year for the use of the new officers he says are needed. The cost using the state contract would be about $830,000 over the five years for the patrol vehicles only.
            Leonard said the department needs to catch up to the growth over the past years. Property crimes have increased by 48 percent in the last five years, he wrote, first-person crimes have increased 39 percent and general calls for service have increased 59 percent.
            Leonard also asked for $75,000 to complete the purchase of a system of computer-aided dispatch (CAD) and a records management system.
            His request for an electric all-terrain vehicle for patrolling the town’s trails and greenways did not make the top-17 list but at $24,000 appears to be a bargain.
            -- Also included in the top 17 are requests to finish paying for the new town software, to upgrade all town employees to a standard software and e-mail system, to provide lighting along the Calvin Jones Highway (N.C. 98 bypass) and to work on the town’s electric system load management controls.
            Copies of the CIP are available for review at town hall.