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On
Friday, Feb. 2, the Town of Wake Forest
will unveil its latest effort to
communicate with town residents, “Focus
on Wake Forest.”
The new program, which will
air on Channel 10, “will spotlight the
best of the Town of Wake Forest,” Bill
Crabtree, the town’s communications
specialist, said.
“It will be a good way to
bring the town closer to the residents
and put a face with a name.” People may
have heard the name Mike Barton, but now
they will be able to see the public
works director.
Each episode of “Focus on
Wake Forest” will include three short
segments, five to 10 minutes each, that
will highlight programs already underway
or planned for the near future.
The first installment, which
will air throughout February, will
feature the maintenance work Wake Forest
Power is doing on the town’s electrical
system, introduce the new automated
meter reading (AMR in shorthand) for the
electrical system, and invite residents
to participate in the H.O.P.E. program.
The H.O.P.E. program enables residents
to either round up their utility bills
from the town or make a monthly
contribution that is used to help people
who are struggling to pay their bills.
Crabtree said the new
program will begin to use Channel 10,
designated as a community access channel
by Time Warner Cable, as it was
intended.
Beginning Thursday
afternoon, Channel 10 will also air
Mayor Vivian Jones’ State of the Town
address on a regular basis. She will
tape the on-air only speech Thursday
morning.
“In March, we’re going to
spotlight the northeast neighborhood
plan, have an introduction of the
community plan (for land use), the
upgrades at the Community House, and the
upgrades underway at Flaherty Park,”
Crabtree said.
Town resident Charles Martin
and his company, Media Guru
Communications, is in charge of filming
and producing “Focus.” Martin is
vice-chairman of the Wake Forest Human
Relations Council.
Although Channel 10 is only
available to Time Warner Cable, Crabtree
said “Focus on Wake Forest” will soon be
available at
http://www.wakeforestnc.gov/channel10.aspx.
“Focus” is just one of an
array Crabtree and the town staff are
producing to introduce the town to new
residents and keep current residents
aware of town activities.
There is E-News, a monthly
newsletter about town activities. People
can sign up for E-News at
http://www.wakeforestnc.gov. Those
who register for E-News also receive E-Notifier,
which provides access to agendas for the
town board and planning board, the
three-times-a-year parks and recreation
department newsletter and the town
manager’s web log.
Crabtree maintains a
community calendar – click on “For
Residents” in the town’s web site – that
lists every event anyone tells him
about. “We encourage people to submit
their organization’s events so we can
post them.”
Using the information in the
community calendar, Crabtree sends out
an e-mail on Fridays called The Week
Ahead. “We have had an outstanding
response” to the notification, he said,
because “people like knowing what’s
going on so they can plan to attend.” It
goes out to everyone who signs up for
E-News.
Very soon the town will
begin sending out a newsletter to all
the electric and sanitation customers.
Crabtree said it will first go out
quarterly, then every other month and
finally every month.
They are still working on an
ambitious project, a guide to Wake
Forest, which will tell people how to
find things and include addresses, town
programs and services, contact
information, emergency telephone
numbers, locations of hospitals,
schools, officers and meeting times and
places for civic clubs, and all sorts of
relevant information.
“It was designed for people
who had just moved to the area,”
Crabtree said, and it will be given to
everyone who goes to town hall to set up
a utility account. “We think it’s also
going to be very popular with people who
have lived her for a long time.”
It will be a size easy to
stash in a center console in a vehicle,
available for quick reference, and it
will be available in mid-February. |
