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During their January planning retreat,
the Wake Forest Town Board decided to
study the costs of converting the
independent Wake Forest Fire Department
to a town department, but no consultant
has been hired.
Tuesday night Mayor Vivian
Jones said Stanley Denton, the chairman
of the fire department board of
directors, had called her and asked the
town put aside the study until it
received a formal request from the
directors.
Denton told her they were
still having discussions about the
change, Jones said.
Jones also said she had been
asked to write a letter supporting the
certificate of need to allow Franklin
Regional Medical Center to build a new
facility at the intersection of Capital
Boulevard and N.C. 96 north of
Youngsville.
“I think it’s a good thing.
It will be a medical facility that will
be much more accessible to us than any
other,” Jones said.
She asked if the
commissioners wished to join her in a
letter from the entire board, but they
balked.
“I personally have a problem
of us as a town supporting that when we
are taking away from the town of
Louisburg,” Commissioner Margaret
Stinnett said. FRMC would operate a
small emergency clinic in Louisburg with
the new facility.
Commissioner Stephen
Barrington, who is the new executive
director for the Franklin County Chamber
of Commerce, gave a confused statement
which reflected his divided allegiances.
The Franklin chamber has not yet taken a
stand on the move. Barrington did say
the people in Bunn, Centerville and
other northern and eastern part of the
county were surprised. “It knocked the
wind out of them.”
Commissioner David Camacho
said he would have no trouble, as a
business owner, supporting the move.
However, he opposes it as a town
commissioner because “it would be
essentially writing off a possibility of
a hospital in Wake Forest.”
In other business Tuesday
night, the commissioners:
-- approved the conceptual
plan for the new town hall.
-- approved the development
plan for the new American Legion
building on East Holding Avenue and a
contract of $141,772 with Modular
Technologies Inc. to construct the
modular building and outbuilding. The
town is paying for the new building; it
is the cost of buying the current
American Legion building and land for
the new town hall site.
-- agreed to permanently
close West Avenue and Rankin Court to
make way for the new seminary campus.
-- agreed to annex 8.3 acres
on Galaxy Drive where the Mountaineer
Group plans a small commercial
subdivision and accepted an annexation
petition from William and Lisa Ann Way
for 7.9 acres in the 10300 block of Star
Road.
-- appointed Thomas Neal to
the Historic Preservation Commission.
-- agreed that Pregnancy
Support Services could have amplified
music at the Wake Forest Museum during
its annual Walk for Life on April 21.
-- rezoned the buildings and
6 acres comprising Wakefields on Wake
Union Church Road to conditional use
neighborhood business. Owner Sherrill
Brinkley said he decided it was the best
way to preserve the historic property.
Wake Forest developer Jim Adams is
buying the property, and his daughter
and a partner plan to operate an events
business there.
-- delayed consideration of
the proposed extension of the Municipal
Service Tax District.
-- agreed to the annexation
agreement with Rolesville outlining
where the two towns will provide
municipal services in the future.
-- turned down a request by
former town planner Jamie Cox, acting
for Cornerstone Homes, which is building
The Villas at Wake Forest adjacent to
Caveness Farm Apartments. The
construction is south of the N.C. 98
bypass across Richland Creek. Cox asked
that the planning board and the town
board review the site plan for the new
town electric substation, saying there
was a concern about buffering.
Jones said she thought it
would be unnecessary.
“I think their big concern
is they’ll be looking at a substation,”
Stinnett said. When she looked north she
could “only see electric wires, 98 and
Lowe’s.” She praised the staff for
exceeding the requirement for landscape
buffers.
There is a Wake Electric
substation on the hill above the site
for the town’s.
-- agreed to increase the
fee for cemetery plots by $100.
Town Manager Mark Williams
was at a family dinner for his nephew
Tuesday night. The young man, who has
lived with the Williamses for several
years, entered the Army Wednesday. |
