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Construction
for Wake County’s Northern Regional
Center in the heart of Wake Forest
should get underway in October.
The plan for the center will
be on the agenda for the planning
board’s meeting on Aug. 1.
The center, similar to those
already operating in Fuquay-Varina and
Zebulon, will be built on the land the
county owns between the post office and
the Wake Forest Public Library on East
Holding Avenue. Wake County owns all the
land on the south side of the street
from the post office to South Franklin
Street and has already built two
buildings, the library and the EMS
station that faces on Franklin.
Patrick McHugh with the
county’s facilities office said the
center, including all the furniture,
computers and other fixtures and
equipment, will cost an estimated $5.5
million.
“We are coming close to the
end of the design phase,” McHugh said.
The building design will be similar to
that of the other regional centers. The
bid process, which will take about a
month, will start in mid-August. “We
hope to be under construction in early
October.” The 23,000-square-foot center
is forecast to open in late November of
2007.
Members of the Friends of
Wake Forest Public Library had suggested
the library could be expanded at the
same time, but that will not happen.
McHugh said planners from
the county have met with Yvonne Allen,
the library branch manager, to talk
about ways to ameliorate the negative
impact the construction will have on the
library.
With construction almost a
reality, a separate planning group
headed by Rosena West, the director of
the Southern Regional Center, will be
determining what services with how much
space will be in the Wake Forest center.
A community survey as well
as focus groups will acquaint the
planning group with the most pressing
needs in northern Wake County.
The services at the center
in Zebulon include but are not limited
to:
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Child and women’s health clinics
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Job Link services
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Work First job counseling
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Child protective services
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Family support services
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Foster care
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Mental health and substance abuse
services for adults, children and
families
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Wake County Sheriff’s office
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Tax revenue collections
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Community meeting rooms
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Voter registration
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Cooperative Extension agents, Master
Gardener program and 4-H youth
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Permits for buildings
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Food, sanitation and restaurant
inspections,
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Well program
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Court services
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Animal control
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