April 5, 2006

Published in Wake Forest, NC

            Staples said the plan is to have the new software installed and tested, ready to go online July 1, 2007. It will, she said, provide “better, more efficient service” for customers and give her staff and other users the ability to do operations and provide information they cannot do today.

            Staples and the town staff are doing the work themselves, currently assessing the needs and visiting other towns to see their software in action. “We want to see what’s out there, what other folks are using that’s working for them. We want to make sure the end user is going to buy into what we’re looking at.”

            The cost of the new system could range from $190,000 to $600,000. The Capital Improvement Plan includes $750,000 spread over the next two fiscal years for the cost.

            When Commissioner Frank Drake asked if her timeline is realistic, Staples said she thought so but has no experience. “We haven’t done this in 30 years.”

            “Aileen makes it sound as though we are using stone knives,” Town Manager Mark Williams said. He explained the town has had the same vendor for financial software for that long but during that time the hardware has changed from mainframe to servers and the software has been upgraded and changed several times.

            Wanman has been gathering information about municipal service districts as a first step in expanding the current downtown service district to match the area of the Renaissance Plan. She knows the tax rate for all the service districts in the state and has some information about the revenue they return and the use of the revenue.

            The map she gave commissioners had two options: to expand southward to the bypass and exclude Heathridge Village or to expand both southward and eastward to include the townhouses at Avondale and two apartment complexes.

            “I’d like to see the district eliminated,” Commissioner Stephen Barrington said. “It seems like it is being hit up a bit more” than the rest of the town.

            Property in the current downtown service district is assessed an additional 10 cents over the town’s 54-cent per $100 valuation property tax rate. The money, $41,666 this year, is used to pay off the bonds used to finance the purchase of property and construction of the parking lot between Jones and Wait avenues, just to the east and behind the buildings on South White Street. The bonds will be paid off by July 1, 2010.

            Wanman said the money raised from the expanded district could be used to help the Downtown Revitalization Corporation pay for a downtown manager, for façade grants to businesses, for landscaping the planned roundabouts on Franklin Street or for the streetscape project along South White.

            “It doesn’t make sense to me to include the residential portion,” Mayor Vivian Jones said. She and her sister, Jonnie Anderson who is active in the DRC, own a downtown business, jovi’s Kitchen and Market.

            “I think this municipal service district is a very sound plan,” Jones went on. “I think we would be remiss to do away with it because it does provide funds for projects that need to be done.”

            After Williams said the board needs to consider what the funds raised would be used for and some of the projects might have an indirect benefit for downtown residences, Jones suggested it could be three different districts.

            Commissioner Margaret Stinnett, who operated the family business, Jones Hardware, in the downtown area in 1988 when the tax district was established, said, “I think we asked for the district.”

            Williams agreed and said the tax revenue generated barely covered the debt service in the early years and the town had to chip in some money some years.

            Mark Urban’s brochure promises “Free Water” and his cistern system can deliver, he told the board.

            “Our water crisis is not going to get any better,” Urban said.

            “The key benefits [for his cistern system] are it saves thousands of gallons per month that would be used from city water systems or the water tables, it can help towns sustain healthy growth rates, it is easy to use, with no maintenance,” Urban said.

            The benefit for towns and for developers is reduced use of municipal water for lawns and gardens. The average household uses 6,000 gallons a month, 72,000 gallons a year. Sixty percent of that water is used outdoors, Urban said. 43,200 gallons a year. A cistern can capture up to 112,750 gallons a year from the average house roof in a year of average rainfall. “That’s free water,” Urban said.

            At his house, where he has been testing the system for four years, “I can’t use it fast enough.”

            “Already you’re saving a third of your water bill. Our goal is to reduce the amount of water per household for more sustained healthy growth.”

            Drake wanted to know what cisterns offered that wells do not. Urban, who operates a power washing business, said a well can be sucked dry sometimes in 20 minutes. If wells were drilled for all the new houses in the area, they would suck the aquifer dry. He did not mention the radioactivity in wells drilled in Rolesville granite that has plagued some individual and community wells or other contaminants such as lead, bacteria from septic systems or chemicals leaking from underground tanks. (If you have a well used for drinking, food preparation and bathing, please have it tested.)

            The town is facing the need for water conservation, Williams said. “This is one method of trying to deal with that.” The town gives rebates for people who agree to load management of their electric appliances and has urged them to install heat pumps.

            “The idea is to give incentives to come up with a different way to deal with the water issue,” Williams said.

            He added that Wake County officials have said they are concerned about the number of wells being drilled and the long-term effect on the aquifer that feeds Falls Lake.

            For people who want more information about Urban’s cistern system, they can go to http://www.FreeFloWater.com, send him an e-mail at Mark@FreeFloWater.com or call him at 562-7891.