April 18, 2007

Published in Wake Forest, NC

            Afterward, Commissioner David Camacho put it in terms of local people with real needs. “The one thing I’ve heard is that convenient, affordable transportation for people, a lot of whom are elderly, is strongly requested.”

            In conversations with people in the northeast area of town, Camacho said, they say they want a local stop “so they can get to some other place where they can at least access your broader system.” The town should be able to identify those pickup and dropoff sites, he said.

            Commissioner Stephen Barrington was equally as concrete, saying a local bus system must operate over long hours, be consistent in its schedules, have sheltered bus stations and locations that are close to shopping and other destinations.

            The meeting Tuesday night was short and was not televised on Channel 10 because the video system is out of order. The only item that could draw controversy, the rezoning request for land at the corner of Burlington Mills Road and Ligon Mill Road, was delayed to May at developer Jim Adams’ request because the neighborhood meeting could not be scheduled until April 24.

            Barrington asked about eliminating the $5 fee the town had been charging customers for paying their accounts with a credit card over the telephone. Andrew Brown, the customer service supervisor, sent out a memo on March 21 saying the town would no longer accept utility payments over the phone: customers could use the on-line bill pay feature on the web site.

            “Why do we need to approve it?” Barrington asked.

            “You need to take it out of your fee schedule,” Town Manager Mark Williams said. “We had discovered we could no longer charge a fee.” The practice raised questions about identity theft, he said, and “We wanted to get out of the business anyway.”

            Camacho said he had been asked why new residents have to go to town hall to set up an account to pay for electric service, garbage and recycling collection.

            “They can call in. They do have to provide some form of identification,” Williams said.

            Commissioner Margaret Stinnett said she had found the town’s practices stickier after her mother died and she wanted to transfer a utility account to her name. “I had to cut one off and transfer it to a new account.” When she called Raleigh about changing the water and sewer account, she could do it with one phone call.

            Williams said there have been instances where people have falsified their names, trying to set up a new account using their mother’s name or someone else’s, after service had been cut off elsewhere in town for lack of payment. A lot of businesses now accept that kind of loss and write it off, he said.

            “I’m not suggesting the town write off anything,” Camacho said, “but new residents can’t understand why they can’t set up an account with the town of Wake Forest over the phone or by internet.”

            The board voted unanimously for two popular items: a permit to allow William and Louise Howard to operate a bed and breakfast at their North Main home and an ordinance to require people to secure the loads on their trucks and vehicles to prevent littering.

            Mayor Vivian Jones began the meeting by asking for a moment of silence for the students and faculty at Virginia Tech.

            The board took the following actions during the meeting:

• Approved an annexation agreement with the Town of Youngsville, already approved by Youngsville, allowing Wake Forest to annex into Franklin County where it can serve developments with water and sewer that Youngsville cannot.

• Approved annexation requests for 12 acres in the Heritage North subdivision, 7.5 acres in the 10600 block of Star Road, 23 acres at Unicon Drive and One World Way, 4 acres at 1616 Forestville Road and 40 acres on Taylor Road in Franklin County.

• Approved the 2007-2012 Capital Improvements Plan as adjusted to make a new backhoe a higher priority.

• Approved a four-way stop at Lakeview Avenue and Siena Drive, and

Approved the interlocal and joint use agreement with the Wake County Board of Education for the fields and tennis courts at Heritage High School.