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Postal Courier to the rescue

Woman injured in fall aided by postal worker

Mary Jekielek Insprucker, Contributing Writer
 

March 11, 2004

“Neither snow, nor rain, nor
heat, nor gloom of night stays
these couriers from the swift
completion of their appointed
rounds” has long been the
inscription at the New York City
Post Office.

However, Apex resident Anne
Gross might want to add “help
in need” to that testament.
The 68-year-old Gross frac-
tured her pelvis when she fell in
the driveway at her home in the
Scotts Mill Subdivision.

“I was the only one living on a
new Street,” said Gross, who
had just moved to her new home
in Apex after spending 11 years
in Raleigh. “If Vicki didn’t help
me, I don’t know how long I
would have laid there.”

Vicki Leach was Gross’ postal
courier at the time. Gross came
to her mail truck to get a pack-
age and as she turned to walk
back to the house in a pounding
rain, she tripped on an uneven
slope of her driveway.

“I had already started to pull
away when I saw Anne falling
out of the corner of my eye,”
said Leach, who worked for a
post office in New York for five
years before securing an Apex
route in 2000. “I just stopped the
truck where it was and got out
and ran back to her.”

Leach said at first Gross want-
ed her to help her get up, but
Leach explained she did not
think that was a good idea
because Gross could not move
and she was bleeding. Before
she went into the house to call
911, Leach went to her truck to
get an umbrella to cover Gross.
While waiting for the ambu-
lance, Leach tried to make Gross
as comfortable as possible.

“I talked to her about all kinds
of things to try to take her mind
off the pain,” said Leach.
Leach made sure to put Gross’
mail inside her house. Then she
retrieved Gross’ purse and cell
phone and locked up the home.
When she returned to the
Apex Post Office, rain-soaked
and shaken, Leach did not men-
tion her heroic service.

“We only found out about her
efforts through a letter sent in by
Anne Gross,” said Apex
Postmaster John Friar.

“People don’t always realize
how often carriers help.
Sometimes they are the only
contact people have day in and
day out. They learn people and
their habits and are always keep-
ing their eyes and ears open.”

Gross moved to Apex to be
closer to her children. They
helped her during her recovery
from a double fracture of the
pelvis and some cuts and bruises.

 

Apex officials believe town sells itself

Shawn Daley, Editor

March 11, 2004

 


At a time when the economy is under-
going a painfully slow rebound, some
municipalities have been forced to
become creative when trying to recruit
businesses.

Towns, cities, counties and even states
have begun offering large incentives to
businesses looking for a place to relo-
cate.

Taxes and development fees are being
waived and other financial packages are
offered in a desperate attempt to bring
more commercial and retail development
into an area.

Although Apex is aggressively seeking
for more business growth, don’t expect
town officials to offer incentives any
time soon.

The way they see it, Apex is a place
that can sell itself.

Town commissioners and Mayor Keith
Weatherly discussed the issue Friday
during the town board’s annual retreat at
the community center.

The mayor and all five commissioners
agreed that offering incentives was the
wrong path for Apex to take.

“I don’t feel it’s a good policy
because it tends to favor certain
businesses over others and you
don’t want to do that,” said
Commissioner Gene Schulzle.
“I don’t likethe fact that some
companies play different munic-
ipalities or states off each other
because then it becomes a bid-
ding war. When that happens
then towns and states start los-
ing taxpayers’ money.

“If a certain town or state is
desperate enough for jobs then I
can see where it would be
worthwhile. But I don’t see
Apex or the Triangle as a stag-
nant area.”

Although the commissioners
discussed a willingness to make
some small concessions such as
improving infrastructure and
spreading- out development fees
over a several-year period, there
was a general consensus that
financial incentives would most
likely hurt the town in the long
run.

“I think it is short-sighted and
generally doesn’t net advan-
tages to the communny because
you don’t recoup those incen-
tives over the long haul,” said
Weatherly.

Commissioner Bill Jensen
agreed.

“If you do business incentives
you need to make sure you get
true payback and that can be dif-
ficult to determine,” said Jensen.
The issue of business incen-
tives was raised following local
efforts by Wake County officials
to generate additional economic
development.

The county has approached
area chambers of commerce to
find out what a town would be
willing to do to land a business.

“The question is going out as
to who will provide some incen-
tives to make the relocation less
expensive for their company,~~
said Weatherly. “So (the county)
is seeing which communities
might have (an incentives pack-
age) so they will know how to
respond to those questions.

“We thought we would be
proactive and pose that issue
here at the retreat. In general, we
would be opposed to incentives
but we would not slam the door
tight because there might be a
unique possibility. Personally, I
would think having a situation
where I would favor incentives is
unlikely.”

So what would happen if a hi-
tech company bringing hun-
dreds of jobs to the area wanted
to relocate to Apex?

“Well,” chuckled Weatherly,
“then I think we might be able to
work something out with them.
But it would have to be something
like that, something so attractive
where the benefits to the commu-
nity would be realized.

“There is certainly the poten-
tial for a unique application of
incentives. But they are so
unique that you can’t say Apex
is in the business of providing
them on a general basis.”

Town officials believe Apex
can be very successful by taking
the “what you see is what you
get” approach with businesses.

After all, they are confident
that what businesses will see in
Apex is very appealing. The
town boasts the second-lowest
tax rate in the county, a high per
capita income, good living envi-
ronment,, strong infrastructure
and is in close proximity to the
Research Triangle Park and
three major universities.

“Our competitors can’t match
what we have to offer here,”
said Weatherly. “I don’t believe
they are willing to put up signif-
icant financial inducements to
change that advantage that we
already have.”


 

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