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Cultural arts facility on the way

Old town hall on Salem Street will become a 144-seat theater

Shawn Daley, Editor

January 29, 2004



For well over a decade Apex officials have discussed ways of preserving the old town hall building on Salem Street.

Inevitably, a lack of proper funds put those plans on hold.

Now, with the help of Wake County, those plans are finally becoming a reality.

The county commissioners agreed last week to put $550,000 toward Apex’s $1.1 million project of turning the old town hall into a cultural arts facility.

The project was one of six throughout the area that Wake County will help fund with money from the Occupancy and Prepared Food/Beverage Tax proceeds.

The Jan. 20 announcement came as very good news to Apex Mayor Keith Weatherly.

“We had discussed preserving this building in some fashion for quite awhile,” said Weatherly. “It precedes my administration. We’ve just been trying to determine the direction it ought to take and the wherewithal was also an issue.

“We are very grateful the county commissioners gave us a portion of the hotel/motel tax monies, which Apex is contributing significantly to with the number of motels, hotels and restaurants in town. Now we are getting some of that back.”

The building, which was built in 1912, was a hub of activity in the downtown for many decades. Besides serving as town hall the building also had two jail cells in the rear of the structure and a stage on the second floor.

The stage area, complete with original woodwork, will become a 144-seat facility upon completion.

The building currently houses the Apex Parks, Recreation and Cultural Resources Department offices. The upstairs is used for storage of sporting equipment.

“I think all citizens will really be proud of this because the downtown is the jewel of Apex,” said Weatherly. “Everybody talks about how unique and significant it is for our community. We need to focus on the preservation of the downtown and this will certainly cap that off.

“With the restaurants and now a performing arts center here it will certainly bring people downtown. It will allow the merchants and restaurateurs to benefit as well. It will provide a certainly vitality to the downtown.”

The town already holds drama classes at the community center in conjunction with the Little Raleigh Theater. Having a theater in western Wake County, said the mayor, has been needed for some time.

“As we told the county commissioners our (parks & rec.) staff is already used to putting on events,” said Weatherly. “We are already participating with dramatic arts groups and there is pent up demand for places to perform.

“There are groups out there eager for a place in western Wake County and we are proud it is going to be in Apex. If you build it they will come. Well, they’ve already come. Now we just need to build it.”

Although the machine is in motion, the town commissioners still need to make two important decisions – how to pay for it and how to find additional space for parking.

“I think the $550,000 we received is significant but it’s still leaving us a little short,” said Weatherly. “We’ll have to get the town commissioners together and figure out how we want to finance the rest of it. I feel certain with the priorities we place on this project we will be able to do it.

“We will also work on parking, which will obviously be an issue. We have several different things going including maybe a future acquisition that will help.”

Town manager Bruce Radford said the project should be completed in about 24-30 months.

“We’ve paid part of the design fee already,” said Radford. “We (set aside) $50,000 for four years so there is $200,000 of town money ready to go.

“We’ll make another allocation for it this coming fiscal year and we’ll go from there.”

Fortunately for the town, there is no asbestos in the building. Removing asbestos could have added an additional $500,000 to $750,000 to the price tag.

“The building sat here during the late 50s and 60s when they were using a tremendous amount of asbestos and nothing was done in this building,” said Radford. “So it kind of escaped it and worked out great for us.”

Weatherly pointed out that both the chamber of commerce and the Downtown Merchants Association have been supportive of the plan for a cultural arts facility.

“Both of those groups will see the value to the business community,” said Weatherly. “But the spirit and vitality of the downtown has its own worth and value to Apex.

“We can foresee the highlight of the Apex social season surrounding this facility.”

Plan draft reviewed at public workshop

Hilary Caryl Russell, Staff Writer

January 29, 2004

Last Wednesday marked the last of three public forums held by the town of Apex. The town and the design team it hired have sought input from the community about the first draft of the 2025 land use plan.

“We had a nice turnout and had lot of good comments from people…and the feedback we received will help us in revitalizing and finalizing the land use plan,” said Apex Senior Design Planner Dianne Khin.

The design is still in its drafting stages and by no means final yet.

The plan with final changes will have to go through a series of revisions, reviews, presentations and public hearings after eventually being presented to the board of commissioners for approval before it can be adopted and used as a guide for future rezoning.

Consultants from LandDesign, Inc., which is based in Charlotte, created a map of the future of Apex based on feedback and survey results collected during previous meetings.

“I’ve always left the meetings feeling energized and have learned so much about what is underneath the skin of Apex,” said Sera Lewis, a resident who also attended the first two forums.

“I’m hopeful about the plan, but I think it’s going to have to have a lot of buy-in from a lot of people in order for it to succeed. I think as long as we balance the needs of the community with the need to grow the tax base we will be fine.”

Based on survey results, the consultants narrowed a broad number of issues the community seemed most concerned about down to five.

Those include limiting growth to a clearly defined geographic area, concentrating development (especially large scale retail and employment) in specific areas, preserve open space (especially west of town), preserve Apex’s small town character, and make high quality development design a priority.

Then they presented their recommendations and asked for comments.

Some of the consultants’ suggestions included developing and adopting an annexation strategy, identifying industrial business park sites totaling 100-150 acres on N.C., U.S. 64, U.S. 1 and Ten-Ten Road, and working with TTA to develop transit station locations and transit oriented development at two places in Apex.

Residents were enthusiastically nodding in agreement when consultants suggested establishing a preservation program at the local level, instead of leaving it up to the county to determine what is deemed historical or what should be preserved.

In fact, it was that type of suggestion that motivated Janice Feldman to attend the final forum.

“I think the idea of the plan itself is wonderful,” she said.

“But getting the community involved is a really good idea rather than them just making the decisions and then out later if we’re happy with it,” she said.

Lewis agreed and said she could see that the town and the consultants had taken the community’s suggestions into consideration based the maps that were provided at each table.

“Folks at one of the last meetings expressed concerns about planned high density growth around planned transit stops,” she said.

“Today’s plan shows the transit stop outside of historic downtown so that’s directly related to the comments people made, that’s one change I can definitely see,” she said.

Attendees sat at tables and were asked to come up with their own suggestions as to additional changes they thought should be made to the plan before it was finalized and sent the board for approval.

Hamilton Martin said he doesn’t like areas that have mixed non-complimentary housing.

“I don’t want to see five houses, a duplex and then five more houses in the same block. It’d be better to see five houses and five duplexes rather than just the one,” he said.

Ewan Pritchard agreed and said he was concerned with appearances, especially where the downtown area is concerned.

“What I don’t like seeing is one duplex with a concrete driveway,” he said.

“It’s ugly and it doesn’t fit in appearance wise when everyone else around it has grass yards.”

People were also concerned about wanted bicycle lanes added all over town, connecting existing sidewalks, making sure that parking is pedestrian friendly at multi use centers and addressing the issue that if the town’s population is going to increase to a projected 46,000 residents by 2015 then the town’s police, fire, and EMS department needs to double in size as well.

Khin said the direction the plan will take now will include another revision and presentation to the advisory committee before it goes to the Planning Board sometime between March and April, when a public hearing will be held.

“That may take a couple of meetings, then they will make a recommendation to the board of commissioners and the board of commissioners will hold a public hearing and take everyone’s comments into account and then adopt the plan or request to make changes to the plan,” said Khin.

Residents who gave the Planning department their mailing address or Email address will be mailed updates.

All of the comments as well as maps from the forum can be viewed on the town website at www.apexnc.org.

“We expect that the board of commissioners will review it and make a decision sometime late spring, or early summer,” she said.
 

Mayors, ABC help parents face reassignment issues

Meeting to be held Feb. 2, 2004

Mary Jekielek Insprucker, Contributing writer

January 29, 2004

The mayors of Apex and Cary, in conjunction with the parent group, Assignment by Choice, Inc., (ABC) will be sponsoring an event designed to assist parents affected by the Wake County Public School System’s (WCPSS) reassignment proposal.

Attendees will be taught how to navigate the appeals process and will be asked to participate in a reassignment survey. The results of the survey will be presented to the WCPSS as a form of community input for the plan.

The meeting is open to all residents of Wake County and will take place on Monday, Feb. 2 at the Apex Town Hall from 7-9 p.m.

Most are aware of the pending reassignment of over 8,000 students in the Wake County Public School System, a move that affects 76 new and existing schools. Parents have until Feb. 4 for input, and then a revised plan will be presented to the school board in March. The last large reassignment was 5,055 students in 1999.

The school board claims reassignments are necessary to prevent over-crowding and provide a good education. They also are influenced by newly built schools, transportation timelines, and growth trends.

Assignment by Choice describes itself as a united, countywide effort to reform the student assignment policies of the WCPSS. It was formed in August of 2001 after students from six schools were banned from applying to the magnet/year-round program.

Cynthia Matson, president, founder, and director of the non-profit corporation became involved when her son Michael was affected by reassignment.

Matson, who is originally from Massachusetts and has lived in Cary since 1995, said she did not want Michael to attend Swift Creek Elementary.

“Test scores at the school dropped significantly,” said Matson. “And the percentage of low income students drastically increased. People were leaving the school in droves. Understand I was protesting the policies of the system as opposed to protesting the school itself.”

According to Matson, the system, which she said she carefully researched, would not allow her son to transfer to a year-round or magnet school because Swift Creek Elementary was under-enrolled.

She contacted then Mayor, Glen Lang, who encouraged her to organize citizens to see what they could do about the problems.

“When I held my first meeting, hundreds of people came to my house including mayors and town council members. Later, during a work session containing facts and figures of reassignment reform, there was standing room only.”

Matson said some of the main issues were forced busing, lack of long term planning, no community engagement, and failure to provide equity throughout the system. Now, she has seen improvements, although she said there is still work to be done.

“It’s slow progress, but we are making progress and we see them recognizing that we’re serious,” said Matson. “We were also able to get two helpful people on the School Board, Carol Parker and Ron Margiotta.”

Having officials like Apex Mayor Keith Weatherly also helps.

“We endorse the Mayor’s Task Force on school assignment as a means for parents to become informed and heard,” said Weatherly.

Weatherly has two main concerns with the WCPSS.

“Planning is woefully inadequate in the school system,” said Weatherly. “Another concern is that many on the School Board set social engineering as its first priority over quality of education.”

As for ABC, Weatherly has seen progress by the group.

“ABC is a permanent organization and they will not let up after one reassignment plan. They have momentum and provide a vehicle for parents to express their concerns. They can speak to their needs on a permanent basis. The School Board knows they won’t go away after one reassignment they are forced to accept.”

Being forced to accept reassignment from West Lake Elementary (WLE) to Turner Creek is exactly what Kareen Burd’s second grader, Thomas, is going through.

“My phone started ringing at seven a.m. with people in my subdivision upset about the reassignment,” said Kareen Burd. “We plan to have a meeting about it at the subdivision clubhouse.”

Burd said she is unhappy about the reassignment for several reasons including, the longer drive, construction filled route, and lack of community belonging.

“When I was young I used to walk across the street to my school. I knew all the kids. With Turner Creek being so far I don’t feel like we’ll be a part of that community.”

As for options, other than putting up the “For Sale” sign, Burd said she could choose to accept the reassignment, put Thomas in a private school, although that is not currently financially feasible, or enroll him in her base school, which she does not want to do because it is on the traditional calendar.

“Our base school is not year-round and I find that’s what works best for Thomas for his retention and when he needs a break.”

In addition to the subdivision meeting, Burd plans to attend the Feb. 2 ABC meeting. She hopes to get some help there, which is exactly what Matson hopes to provide.

“Everywhere I go people recognize me and stop to thank me for what I’m doing and offer their support,” says Matson.

For more information, contact Assignment by Choice at 424-1242, or visit www.assignmentbychoice.org.

WCPS will accept comments on the reassignment proposal through Feb. 4 via: www.wcpss.net or studentassignment@wcpss.net or by calling 501-7998.
 

Thawing out

Storm leaves icy mess but it could have been much worse

Shawn Daley, Editor

January 29, 2004

It wasn’t quite the notorious ice storm of 2002 but the inclement weather of earlier this week certainly made a mess of things.

About two inches of snow and another half-inch of sleet and freezing rain blanketed the area Sunday and Monday.

Although the wintry weather made roadways treacherous, the Triangle was spared from power outages.

Still, Wake County schools shut down for three days while many Apex businesses and town offices were closed on Monday and Tuesday.

As bad as it was it certainly could have been much worse. An additional half-inch of freezing rain was forecast to hit the area on Monday but ended up moving east of the area. Roughly 175,000 people lost power near the South Carolina border.

“This has been a particularly tough storm road-wise,” said Apex Public Works and Utilities Director Tim Donnelly. “But thankfully we haven’t had any power outages.

“Luckily that half-inch of additional ice didn’t occur here or it would have been a double whammy. For that we are counting our blessings.”

The snow began to fall early Sunday afternoon and turned to freezing rain and sleet by the early evening. Light freezing drizzle overnight made driving hazardous by Monday morning.

With temperatures hovering in the 20s on Monday, road crews struggled to clear away the ice and snow. It wasn’t until Tuesday afternoon that crews in Apex began to make significant progress.

“We had snow followed by sleet,” said Donnelly. “The snow wasn’t deep enough for our plows to push it and we realized we were making a bigger mess.

“We thought it was better to leave the two inches of crunchy stuff out there. It never got warm enough Monday and it wasn’t until (Tuesday) that we were able to make a dent.”

But while the roads were hazardous there were only a few minor accidents reported in town over the three-day period.

Apex Fire Chief Mark Haraway commended Apex residents for being smart and staying off the roads.

“Surprisingly, things have been quiet,” said Haraway. “All we had were a few minor accidents with just minor injuries.

“I’m glad the people of Apex heeded the warnings. There was very little traffic in town until (Tuesday afternoon).”

During last year’s storms residents didn’t heed the warnings and emergency personnel were called to numerous accidents.

“We had a large amount of calls during the ice storms last year,” said Haraway. “This year in preparation for those calls we held over a shift and called in some extra people.

“Fortunately, we didn’t have to use them. Maybe this time people decided this storm was the real thing and they didn’t want to venture out.”

While residents used common sense with their driving they will now be asked to have patience with their garbage.

As crews continue to clean up the wintry mess in town, trash and recycling collection will be slow moving.

“There is no way for the trucks to collect all of it until the roads are clear,” said Donnelly. “Residents can put out their trash and recycling and we will get to it if we can. Some we won’t be able to get to for some time.

“We are asking for patience and understanding from residents. It’s going to be hard to get it all done quickly.”

 

Public Service Announcement:

VOLUNTEER CAREGIVING CENTER BOASTS OVER 500 VOLUNTEERS

The Center for Volunteer Caregiving, located in Cary across from Cary High School, operates in a small office with a small staff, but does big things. After applying for a Faith in Action grant in 1994, The Center for Volunteer Caregiving was incorporated as a 501(c)3 and hired its first program director. Today, the center functions exceptionally well with an energetic executive director and five part-time staff, including two social workers.
In an era when volunteerism appears to be at an all-time low, the Center for Volunteer Caregiving is pleased to announce they have 537 trained volunteer caregivers. That number may seem high, but consider this, there are currently 432 care receivers in Wake County receiving services. The center focuses on providing support services for older and disabled adults. Services include: transportation, respite care, caregiver support, Alzheimer’s respite care, occasional meal preparation, light housekeeping and yardwork, telephone assurance, and sometimes just friendly visiting.
The Center recruits, trains, and supports volunteers from the community and many corporations and each volunteer is matched with a care receiver after thoughtful consideration.

The Center for Volunteer Caregiving is an inter-denominational effort rooted primarily in the faith community – mobilizing volunteers to put their faith into action. The mission of the center is to provide volunteer support to elderly and disabled adults of Wake County in order to maintain independence, dignity, and quality of life.
The center operates with financial assistance from a variety of sources including Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina, Town of Cary, City of Raleigh, Alzheimer’s Association of Eastern NC, The Steward’s Fund, and over 15 member congregations.
With the social trend toward two income families, meaning fewer children available to provide assistance to older family members, informal caregiving has become far more challenging. For those living alone, social isolation may be compounded by the inability to drive oneself. In Wake County, the cost of a private companion or paying for transportation can be exorbitant – and help can be very difficult to find. The Center for Volunteer Caregiving offers solutions to these problems, and has for almost 12 years.
For more information about how you can help, or get help, call 460-0567 or log on to www.volunteercaregiving.org.


Mercedes Auger
Executive Director
The Center for Volunteer Caregiving
"We help maintain independence, dignity and quality of life for the elderly and disabled adults of Wake County."
(office) 919-460-0567
(fax) 919-466-8029
www.volunteercaregiving.org
 

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