|
“We have to beg for services. Why can’t
the town come and see what the
neighborhood needs.”
“Put cameras on the street
lights. Catch them (drug dealers) in the
act.”
“Our children don’t have a
place to go. The town needs to plan for
recreation services for children from 6
to 18.”
“Dogs run rampant in this
neighborhood.”
These were just some of the
complaints Monday night during the
second neighborhood meeting for the
northeast quadrant plan. Unfortunately,
some of the comments were lost to half
the participants because of the poor
acoustics in the DuBois Center gym.
But Mayor Vivian Jones and
the planners for the town-sponsored
plan, Roger Waldon and Leigh Ann King of
Clarion Associates in Chapel Hill, said
there had been some positive steps.
“This meeting is to try to
find out what the community wants,”
Jones said near the close of the
meeting. “I agree with you that we’re
late getting this done. It should have
been done years ago.”
She ticked off the ongoing
town plans – a downtown plan, a sidewalk
plan – “We’re doing this plan so we can
all be together and participate in a
prosperous time and a good time for the
town of Wake Forest.”
Town staff heard the
comments at the first meeting at Olive
Branch Baptist Church. One complaint was
about the lack of street lights. The
public works department responded with a
survey and began replacing burned-out
light bulbs and placing arms on some
poles to light an area better. They also
identified areas where new lights are
needed, but “They’re not going to put up
new poles yet until we get this plan
together.”
The day after the Olive
Branch meeting Deputy Town Manager Roe
O’Donnell sent a letter to the state
Department of Transportation asking for
a four-way stop at East Juniper Avenue
and North Allen Road. DOT said no, but
Jones said the town will look at other
ways to slow speeders.
King said Clarion has
completed two reports, one about
exterior housing conditions and another
about economic development.
“We heard a lot that people
in the neighborhood would like to have a
grocery store they could walk to,” King
said, “but it doesn’t look very good.”
There are too many grocery
stores in other areas in Wake Forest,
and the study indicates there would not
be enough support for one in or close to
the northeast part of town.
However, Waldon noted later
that mention of a close-by grocery store
elicited the most agreement, a general
shaking of heads. “The market forces are
not aligned. By the conventional means,
you’re not going to get a grocery store
here. Let’s look at options other than
the conventional business model.”
Amy Cole held a short public
hearing, asking for suggestions to spend
the federal dollars the county’s Housing
and Community Revitalization Office
receives. Grace LaRock, who lives in
Jubilee Village, asked about the dirt
road in the subdivision because it is a
haven for drug dealers. Planning
Director Chip Russell said it is a
right-of-way for an extension of Perry
Avenue.
LaRock said the county money
could be used for the dirt road. “They
should make it a road and light that
sucker up. Make it safe for the kids.”
Cole asked for a copy of the
housing survey for others in her office
to use as a guide in identifying homes
they can rehabilitate or renovate. The
office has upgraded a number of homes in
town in past years.
Deloris Bailey of
Empowerment Inc. in Chapel Hill returned
as promised to start the organizing for
a community organization, and resident
and attorney Keith Shackleford helped
that along by strongly suggesting the
first meeting be next Monday. Don’t come
to the meeting if you don’t want to
work, Bailey said, as she named some of
the jobs involved in building a
community organization and maintaining
it.
Waldon and King had
assembled a draft of eight neighborhood
plan goals based on the comments and
opinions heard during the December
meeting. Those are:
-
Create an active and vibrant
community where residents are safe.
-
Encourage infill development and
redevelopment to be designed in a
manner that enhances the character
of the neighborhood.
-
Provide greater opportunities for
home ownership.
-
Reduce speeding and other negative
traffic impacts on the neighborhood.
-
Create greater pedestrian and
bicycle access throughout the
neighborhood and to local points of
interest.
-
Improve the visual character of the
neighborhood.
-
Encourage the development of new,
local businesses to provide jobs and
needed services.
-
Create a central community gathering
place that encourages neighborhood
interaction.
A woman who lives on Perry
Avenue complained about the buses for
Forest Pines Elementary School lining
the street in the afternoon. “The street
access is very limited in that area.”
Planner Ann Ayers said there
is a bus loop on the school property and
she will make sure the buses are using
that loop, not the street.
Mary Hayes from the Mill
Village said she did not see a lot of
recreation in the plan. “What about a
playground, a swimming pool. Too many
kids are playing in the street.”
Pastor Eula Coleman echoed
that concern about the lack of
recreation for youngsters. She had a
long list of concerns, some of them at
the beginning of this article, but she
said they were not all hers; she had
consulted with the congregation of her
church, Faith Tabernacle United Holy
Church on East Juniper Avenue.
“If DuBois could do some
creative services so we can apply for
these homes” that might be built as
infill, Coleman said. “We need to
improve our credit.”
The deacon at her church,
Elizabeth Johnson, asked: “Children have
to pay forty dollars to play in any
sport. Why does it cost so much for
these kids to play sports?”
LaRock said the cost keeps
parents from letting their children be
on sports teams, leaving them, like her
son, without a wholesome occupation.
“He’s being frisked all the time by the
cops. He’s only fourteen.”
Lawrence Eugene Perry, the
president of the National DuBois High
School Alumni Association, said the
DuBois Center will have computer classes
and day care. “We want to create jobs.”
Waldon said the next steps
are to update the town board on Feb. 6 –
four of the five commissioners and the
mayor were at the meeting – and prepare
a draft plan.
People were asked to
volunteer for the advisory committee,
which will review the draft plan and
make changes.
That plan will be presented
at the third meeting, which will be in
March at Olive Branch Baptist Church.
After the meeting, the plan will be
revised during April and the final plan
will go to the town board in May for its
approval and future action.
|
