March 7, 2007

Published in Wake Forest, NC

            “We have had great help from Wake Forest through the years,” Dr. Billy Dunlap said, mentioning Randy Bright and Beth Andrews, who have been on the hospice board.

            Hospice of Wake County serves a 10-county area and is the only hospice organization in the state without a free-standing hospice facility. Clients are served in their homes or in nursing homes. There are only six acute care beds at Rex which are available to Hospice.

            The organization served 86 families in the Wake Forest area last year.

            Patricia Evans, the coordinator for major gifts, said Hospice is asking all affected municipalities to help with the $11 million needed for construction. Hospice has a 50-year lease at $1 a year for 8 acres on state-owned land near the RBC Center.

            The request will be considered during the town’s budget process this spring.

            Wake Forest has just over 2 miles of unpaved streets scattered through town, and Tuesday night at the commissioners’ work session Director of Engineering Eric Keravuori illustrated the list with slides of each of the 20 streets.

            He also gave the commissioners a list of eight streets that could be paved for about $1.1 million: Brewer Circle, Carter Street, Farm Road, Farm Ridge Road, Highland Drive, Mangum Street, Spring Valley Road and West Walnut Street.

            Now that we have the list, Commissioner David Camacho asked, how do we pay. “Do we get the money from the state, do it ourselves or get money from the property owners?”

            “I think it’s ridiculous that we have that many unpaved roads, especially roads that connect to other roads,” Commissioner Margaret Stinnett said.

            An impact fee was briefly discussed and discarded.

            It could be included in the budget, Town Manager Mark Williams said, “but I’m not going to be able to pull it out of a box. You may even want to think about the possibility of doing a bond issue.”

            If the town writes a check or puts it in the budget, Camacho said, “I’m not sure it’s fair to everybody else” such as the people who paid for a paved street when they purchased a lot or home in a new development.

            “Every paving project we have done has had an assessment for it,” Williams said. The assessment was three-way, with the town paying a third and the property owners on each side a third.

            The town’s actions have increased or will increase traffic on some streets, Stinnett said. “The people on Mangum and Carter lived on nice quiet dirt roads until the board approved that Eatery and now huge trucks go up and down those roads.”

            The town maintains the streets and lists them as part of the town’s road network when it applies for the Powell Bill funds.

            “Spring Valley is very labor intensive for us to maintain,” Deputy Town Manager Roe O’Donnell said.

            At Mayor Vivian Jones’ suggestion, the commissioners agreed to ask the transportation committee – Commissioner Velma Boyd-Lawson and Stinnett – to examine how many streets to pave and how to pay.

            The board briefly discussed the proposed agreement with Youngsville for a boundary north of the county line up to which Wake Forest may annex. There will be a public hearing in April about the agreement.

            The two board members of the Comprehensive Planning Committee had raised a question about adding a fifth member to that committee because of the two to two votes last month. The other two committee members are planning board chairman Bob Hill and member Kim Parker.

            Boyd, who could not attend, sent a letter saying she opposed adding a fifth member.

            Commissioner Stephen Barrington said he liked the idea of tied votes. “It tells us there is some real good debate opportunity for the whole board to discuss.”

            Adding a third town board member would make a quorum, leading to the need for public notices and different meeting arrangements. The CPC now meets at 7:30 a.m. the third Tuesday at The Forks Cafeteria. Adding a third planning board member would dilute its standing as a town board committee.

            The board agreed to stay with a four-member committee.

            Two planned agenda items – a presentation about water conservation measures and a discussion about littering from vehicles – were postponed until the March 20 meeting because the work session was nearing 7 p.m. when the planning board was to hold a work session.