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“There were kind of eye-raising issues
that came up,” Commissioner Stephen
Barrington said Tuesday night during the
town board’s work session, referring to
the minutes from the May meeting the
Human Relations Council held at the
Alston-Massenburg Center.
“One was transportation, and
there was also at least one comment made
asking if there was any sort of police
profiling going on at the present time
and a perceived [feeling] that the town
board is indifferent to that part of
town.”
Barrington said these
beliefs on the part of residents in the
northeast part of town may be actual or
perceived, but either way if that is
what is perceived, “that’s the reality.”
Barrington said he would
recommend the Human Relations Council
help set up a meeting between the town
board and the residents in the Alston-Massenburg
Center to help the commissioners
understand the issues and begin
communicating with the residents.
“If there’s an unmet need, I
want to hear about it,” Commissioner
Frank Drake said.
Mitchell Lawson, chairman of
the HRC, was in the meeting room and was
asked his opinion.
Lawson said the HRC is in
the midst of planning Good Neighbor Day
on Sept. 17. “It’s our largest event for
the year. It will bring diverse sections
of the town together to commingle,
interact. It might be a good forum for
the board to attend this function and
make yourselves available to the town
citizens in a light kind of atmosphere.
These types of issues are better
addressed in that kind of atmosphere and
background.”
“I am sure the board will be
happy to be there,” Mayor Vivian Jones
said, “but I wonder if addressing some
of these things … in the past Good
Neighbor Day has been more of a fun
time, a casual time. Maybe if serious
issues are going to be discussed it
should be done at a time when it won’t
mess up the fun.”
Good Neighbor Day could be a
time, Commissioner Velma Boyd-Lawson
said, “to set the stage to ease some of
the dialogue.”
The matter was left that
Lawson and Barrington would work out a
time for a town hall meeting with
residents of the northeast part of town.
The only agenda items for
the work session were to approve the
Aug. 15 agenda and interview candidates
for the Historic Preservation Commission
and HRC. The candidates had left before
the discussion about the perceptions in
the northeast area.
Because Gail Williams had
withdrawn her application, the only
candidate for a vacant seat on the
Historic Preservation Commission was
John Mills, a retired patent attorney
who lives on Durham Road. Mills said his
family has a long connection with the
historic area on North Main Street, he
grew up in a bungalow there and he is
the fourth generation of the Mills
family to live in the area.
There are three candidates
for two vacant seats on the HRC: Franc
DiBari of 10113 San Remo Place,
Stephanie M. Jenny of 7016 Shady Glen
Lane and Karen Claggett of 721 Richland
Bluff Court.
Claggett is a human
resources professional who moved to town
a little over five years ago with her
husband. She said she applied to the HRC
board because “it sounds a lot like what
I do in corporate life.
DiBari owns DiBari &
Associates, a professional recruiting
company. Although new to town, he has
lived in Wake County five years. “I’ve
always been the voice of the person who
doesn’t stand up for himself.”
Jenny, who has a law degree
from Loyola University, said she enjoyed
her experience on the greenways board
and thought the chance to serve on the
HRC would be “a great opportunity.” When
she took her children to downtown Wake
Forest, she saw smiling faces and
friendly people, a very different
experience from that in their former
home, a Raleigh subdivision.
The commissioners will vote
on the candidates at the Aug. 15
meeting. |
