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The
vote next Tuesday, Oct. 9, will be an important one for Wake County, but if
past off-year elections are a guide very few people will make the decisions
about bonds for libraries, green space and Wake Tech.
That
gives your vote much more weight.
The
bond issues the Wake County commissioners have proposed are for $45 million for
the county’s libraries, $50 million to purchase land for open space and $92
million to allow Wake Technical Community College to construct a new building
on the new Northern Wake Campus on U.S. 401, expand other offerings and
purchase property for a western campus.
Wake
Forest has benefited greatly from past county bond issues. Bond funds were used
to buy the 117 acres for Joyner Park and the 68 acres of the Clinebelle tract
along the Neuse River to help protect it from erosion and pollution. Across the
county, green space bond funds in partnership with local governments or
agencies have helped preserve 3,548 acres.
If
the library bonds are approved, Wake Forest is first in line for an expansion
of the library on East Holding Avenue. All of the library’s patrons know an
expansion is woefully overdue. The staff there helps to circulate the most
books per square feet of any library in the county system, and the county
operates the busiest library system in the state. The expansion would add about
3,000 square feet to the existing 5,000.
The
opening of the new Northern Wake Campus will be a boon to the entire northern
and eastern portions of the county, greatly reducing the commuting time for
students and offering new opportunities for businesses. The building proposed
in the bond issue would offer classes in financial services, computing and
information technologies.
Passage
of the bond issues would mean a tax increase of 2.25 cents per $100 valuation
to repay the bonds. That would amount to $45 for a house valued at $200,000.
The
polls will be open from 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Your voting place is listed on
your voter registration card.
As
you consider your vote, you might also keep in mind that an average of 98
people moves into Wake County each day. There are an estimated 817,429
residents now; we are expected to have more than 1 million residents in 2013.
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