February 8, 2006

Published in Wake Forest, NC

            Jim Adams, who is developing the adjacent Shoppes at St. Ive’s, will donate the land. The station, including planning, design, land acquisition for right-of-way, construction and equipment, will cost an estimated $1.32 million. The station will be at the corner of Wake Union Church and Kearney roads.

            The town, in the plan outlined by Williams, will shoulder 75 percent of the cost with the other 25 percent paid by Wake County, based on the amount of territory in the fire department’s district.

            For town residents, it will probably mean an increase of 3 cents per $100 property valuation, Town Manager Mark Williams said. The town currently provides 10 cents of its 54-cent property tax to the department.

            The Wake Forest department could soon add territory because the Falls Fire Department is closing its station. Some of the Falls fire district would go to the Bay Leaf department and some to Wake Forest. The chief also said the new station will allow for quicker mutual-aid response time in the eastern portion of the Stony Hill Fire Department district.

            Mayor Vivian Jones, referring to the town board retreat in January, told Williams that if the fire department is planning to have it become a part of town government, the board of directors needs to come to the town. “What we decided was that if the fire department is interested in having the town take it over, the board should make a formal presentation to the board.”

            Chief Williams said there were some serious service considerations that will be solved by the third station.

            One is response time. With two stations – one downtown and one on Ligon Mill Road – the response time in the western part of town and outside are more than recommended by Wake County. Wake County says firefighters should respond within five minutes in urban areas, seven minutes in suburban areas and nine minutes in rural areas. The response times now are 6.2 minutes for urban areas, 8.1 minutes for suburban areas and 9.2 minutes for rural areas.

            “In addition to not meeting the minimum response requirements,” the chief said, “we are not meeting ISO (insurance rating) requirements in this area. The recommendations from our 2002 North Carolina evaluation are to build a station in this area to increase our rating and decrease insurance rates to the tax payers in this service area.”

            Since that evaluation, Chief Williams said, at least six subdivisions, two inside town limits and four in the county area, have been added.

            The plan shows there will be additional personnel ready to staff the station when it opens, Commissioner David Camacho said, and the chief said that was so and the costs for four personnel on each of three shifts are included in the itemized budget for operations.

            The annual operating cost will be $669,000 with the town bearing $522,000.

            Wake County will provide a tanker and a First-Responder vehicle for the new station, and the Wake Forest department will use an existing pumper/tanker that is now being repaired for the first-out engine. “We currently have enough equipment to operate,” the chief said.

            In other business during the monthly board work session, Mitchell Lawson, chairman of the Human Relations Council, asked the commissioners to approve plans for a Community Leadership Summit on March 23 to discuss critical issues facing the community and consider solutions. The commissioners agreed they will facilitate some small group sessions and approved as much as $400 for refreshments.

            Commissioner Stephen Barrington was not at the meeting or at the later public hearings about planning matters.