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The piper of growth has kept everyone
dancing the past few years. Now it is
time to begin paying.
The price tag just for
adequate fire protection today and five
years in the future is about $16
million.
Fire Chief Jerry Swift’s two
reports are sobering reading, and his
maps clearly show why we need three more
fire stations just as soon as we can
build them. We need those stations to
protect the lives and property in those
subdivisions we have flung from north of
the Franklin County line down to the
Neuse, from Falls Lake almost to
Rolesville. Our growth has not just
sprawled; it has also leap-frogged a
mile here, half a mile there.
We have had a frenzy of
annexation and residential growth. We
have at least 25,000 residents in about
10,000 homes, and there are 5,545
approved but unbuilt homes that could
house at least 14,400 new people.
When the comprehensive
planning committee and the town board
looked at all these new subdivisions,
the concerns were about water and
traffic, too little and too much,
respectively.
There were no public
questions about whether the town had the
resources, either in money or manpower,
to provide police and fire protection,
garbage collection and street cleaning
to a subdivision nearly on the Neuse or
up in Franklin County. Public works and
the fire department were not consulted
about whether garbage trucks and fire
trucks could get through streets.
Every commissioner must know
– or should know – that houses do not
return enough in property taxes to pay
for all the services they and those
living in the houses require.
The Wake Forest Fire
Department is independent, but most of
its budget comes from the town and most
of its service area, including the most
hazardous fire structures, is in town.
Making sure the town and its
residents have adequate fire protection
is one of the town commissioners’ most
vital responsibilities, whether the town
provides the protection itself or
contracts it. |
