This week’s significant events included a neighborhood meeting, a work session, and our only council meeting of July.

Monday started with calls to council members about the agenda for Thursday’s council meeting. I was able to talk with all council members except council member Robinson. The agenda meeting with managers and directors was later that afternoon and was attended by council member Adcock and Mayor Pro-Tem Robison. We also had a student from NC Science and Math attending. He met with staff members and will spend the week shadowing staff and council. There were no major topics of concern during the agenda meeting. However, Ms. Adcock did bring out a process issue with the Planning and Zoning Board. She expressed that if changes are made after the Planning and Zoning Board meeting then it should go back to the board for another review.

Monday night I met with consultants hired by the Wake County Public School System to discuss qualities for the new superintendent. I was joined by the mayors of Apex, Garner, Rolesville, and Wake Forest. Mayors expressed that the new superintendent should possess better business skills. In addition, they felt he/she should be someone from outside the Wake County School system. My comments were focused on people skills. I feel this person needs to be able to bring a strongly divided region back together and to gain trust from all the parents.

Tuesday I attended a work session with the council and the Planning and Zoning Board. The topic of this work session was transit. Numerous organizations are involved in transportation planning in the Triangle region. Several federal and regional initiatives related to rail and bus transit are now under way. One organization, Triangle Transit, has recently embarked on a plan for future bus and rail transit within our region. Triangle Transit was the main presenter at this meeting. They had several representatives and consultants presenting information and answering questions. There were several significant points made that many people may not know about. Such as:

• Commuter rail will have morning and evening runs but will stay idle during the day.
• Light rail will have to run on a separate track but will use the current CSX corridor.
• The current rail corridor has 400 feet of right-of-way so there is plenty of room for light rail.
• Triangle Transit will hold three rounds of informational workshops which will get more detailed each time. Cary had its first a couple of weeks ago.
• Triangle Transit is basing their planning on having a referendum for the half cents sales tax next fall.

Wednesday I met with Isaac Loh who spent a week shadowing staff and council members. He is a rising senior at NC Science and Math and was focusing on how local government works. In my conversation with Isaac he asked advice on how to be a good leader. My advice was to be a good listener. I enjoyed having Isaac visit us this week and hopefully will watch him become a leader over the next few years.

Wednesday night I attended a neighborhood meeting at Wellington. The meeting was about a new proposal of about 300 apartments at the corner of Cary Parkway and Tryon Road. My advice was to find out all they could about the project and let the developer and council members know their concerns. The next day the developer pulled this project and is preparing to bring another forward that has more of a mixed use.

Thursday I attended a ribbon cutting of Trans Atlantic bank located off Cary Parkway near Waldo Rood. It is great to see banks expanding especially in these tough economic times. Their decision to open a branch office in Cary is a good one. I strongly believe we will lead the region out of the recession and financial institutions will play a key role.

Later Thursday I attended a short meeting to approve minutes of the council state legislative agenda committee made up of council member Adcock, Frantz, and myself. These minutes have to be approved in a public meeting. So I called the meeting to order, a motion was made to approve which passed, and then adjourned. The entire meeting was less than a minute but necessary to follow the letter of the law.

Thursday’s council meeting lasted about three hours. Discussions focused on three major items: the Weston development, the Chapel Hill Road development, and the Weldon Ridge Road alignment. The final decisions for all of these will be made in the future.

Emails this week were on the light side. I had a few related to the Wellington proposal that ended up being pulled by the developer. I also received congratulations for the town being named as the #1 place to live in the Southeast United States (and 23^rd in the country). What an honor! I am so proud to represent a town that has had a history of great leaders and staff to create such an amazing place to live. I also received thanks from a citizen who heard about the town’s success in protecting our email list from distribution. There was a lot of work by our local delegation of legislators to make that happen. Weekly emails wouldn’t be normal without a few complaints. These included a conspiracy that our police department is out to get a particular individual and a complaint about signs.

Well that is all for this week. I will begin a family vacation today so my next post will be on August 1^st. Please feel free to email me with a comment.

This week consisted of a few private meetings, a committee meeting, and a grant award ceremony.

Monday was spent celebrating the July 4^th holiday. I had a rare opportunity to relax and play. I filled the day with a little swimming, a little tennis, and a little yard work.

Tuesday was a busy day which started with a Triangle Transit workshop that was held in the town hall lobby. This is the first of three planned workshops in Cary. General transit plans were presented by video and charts. Several key transit people were on hand to answer questions. I estimate about a hundred visited the workshop which consisted mostly of business leaders.

Tuesday evening I met with a developer on a project that is being reviewed on Chapel Hill Road. He wanted to make sure I understood all that was involved in his project and offer any help in understanding.

After the developer meeting I joined Mayor Holcomb and met Cary News editor Jack Hagel. Our discussion centered on past inaccuracies and on building relationships. I believe relationships are important with the local media. They need to feel comfortable asking questions to make sure they are getting all the details in a story. We need to feel comfortable giving them feedback on stories we feel are inaccurate and misleading.

Wednesday I met with several developers and their representatives for the Peninsula at Amberly. I also had staff, the town attorney, and the town manager in attendance to help with questions. The developers complained that they are having difficulty developing because of upfront road and infrastructure improvements required. Part of these improvements should have been made by the developer of Phase 1 and 2 but the bank that held that guarantee defaulted. At the end of the meeting staff agreed to look at options to bring to council that would allow developers to pay for improvements for properties as they are developed. While it is important to do what we can to help these developers, it is also important to protect the taxpayers from having to take on the responsibility of infrastructure in this area.

Thursday I substituted for Councilman Erv Portman on the Planning and Development committee. We had three items on the agenda. The first two items were approved without discussion. They included accepting grants from the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization and accepting artwork from two local artists. The third item was a discussion on the options for the Weldon Ridge road alignment in the Comprehensive Transportation Plan. We narrowed down the eight options to two and will bring that to council to begin the process of approval which includes a public hearing.

Thursday night I attended a grant presentation ceremony for several Cary CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) teams. CERT is a partner of Citizen Corps whose mission is to have everyone in America prepare, train, and volunteer. I had a great time at this event and was impressed to see and meet many of our citizens who are preparing and training to help others in case of a disaster. The big moment of the evening was a ribbon cutting of the new CERT trailer which was purchased with federal grant money provided to these teams.

Friday I completed an email interview by the Triangle Relocation Guide. This was an easy interview since we live in the most desirable place in the United States. J

Emails this week included complaints about the recently approved budget, lack of notification for the transit workshop, overpopulation of geese, the bicycle ordinance, the Weldon Ridge proposed road alignment, Prestonwood’s golf training facility, and our biosolids facility.

I also received many comments and emails this week regarding my letter to the editor on the Booth Amphitheater. You can read it (for the time being) at http://www.carynews.com/2010/07/04/18966/your-letters.html.

Well that is all for this week. I will begin a family vacation on July 17^th so that will be my next post. Please feel free to email me with a comment.

This week was a little slower than normal but still included a few meetings.

Monday was supposed to begin with a meeting between a local pastor and me but miscommunication caused him not to show.

Monday night I met with the board of the PBA (Police Benevolent Association). They ask that our conversations be kept confidential so I will respect that. I can tell you that our meeting lasted about three hours.

Tuesday I met with the town manager and a key staff member about our water situation. With the hot dry weather our daily consumption has reached a peak of nearly 24 million gallons a day. Although Cary can produce up to 40 million gallons a day, the state regulates how much we can use. Why? Cary is divided by a ridge line between two water basins. Our water comes from Jordan Lake which is in the Cape Fear basin. Our treated water is released into the Neuse basin. The state regulates, via an Interbasin transfer, that we must put back water we take out into the basin. Currently, we buy treatment capacity from Durham County. In the future the new Western Wake Wastewater Facility, that should begin construction this year, will allow us to put treated water back into the Cape Fear basin. In the meantime, state requirements limits how much water we can take from Jordan Lake by how much we can return to the Cape Fear basin. If our usage continues to grow and the weather stays hot and dry we may have to look at restrictions. Staff is looking at other options including working out agreements with more of our neighbors.

After talking about the water situation, the town manager and I talked about various other issues.

Wednesday morning I attended the ribbon cutting for the new Wake County animal shelter. Many of the municipalities in Wake County including Raleigh and Cary are partnering with Wake County. I presented a gift to the Wake County chair and said a few words expressing our gratitude on creating this partnership which was years in the making.

Friday I met with Mayor Pro-Tem Robison to catch up on issues. Ms. Robison basically represents the town on inter governmental issues during the 9 to 5 time frame. This alone is more than a full time job. With her effort I believe the town is well represented in the region. In the past Cary has been bypassed on many regional decisions.

Emails this week included complaints about dogs urinating in the street and town vehicles idling. Other emails included requests to leave abortion coverage in the health care plan, request to support citizens US64 draft corridor plan, and compliments on my letter to the Cary News about their story on the Booth Amphitheater.

Next week I will be attending a transit workshop, meeting with developers, meeting with Mayor Holcombe and the editor of the Cary News, and substituting on the Planning and Zoning Board.

Well that is all for this week. My next post will be on Sunday, July 11^th. Please feel free to email me with a comment.

This week’s most significant event was approving a $348 million budget for fiscal year 2011.

Monday I called all council members to see if they had any questions for Thursday’s council meeting. I was only able to get in contact with council members Portman, Smith, and Adcock. None of them had any concerns or questions. As a result, the meeting with staff about the agenda went very quick. The conclusion was that the meeting would go quickly unless council members had a new problem with the budget. After the meeting I spoke briefly with the town manager on a variety of issues including transit.

Monday night the Holly Springs mayor, Dick Sears, and Joe Zonin of Carolina Brewery hosted all mayors, spouses, and town managers with a tour of the brewery. Mr. Zonin gave a history of the brewery and information about other breweries in the area. At the time Carolina Brewery started investigating whether or not to start a business in this area there were only two breweries in North Carolina. This type of business has increased drastically over the last few years in North Carolina and now there are a few new startups in the area. Mr. Zonin was a great host and a good time was had by all. BTW, in case you are wondering beer tasting was provided in addition to water and soft drinks. But as expected all in attendance behaved responsibly and truly just tasted.

Tuesday morning I briefly attended the State of Cary being held at Prestonwood Country Club and hosted by the Triangle Business Journal. I attempted to give a state of Cary update in two minutes which turned into about five. Even though I ran over I was still very rushed and I am sure my thoughts sounded a bit disjointed. Nevertheless, I did get major points across including how we are in great position to lead the region out of the recession. And I encouraged the businesses to work with the town and elected officials to partner in moving the town forward.

Wednesday I did a taping of Cary Matters with council member Adcock. The main topic was on the budget. There were also questions on noise, green initiatives, and potholes. The taping went smoothly and we were done in 37 minutes.

Thursday started with an interview by WRAL on Mayor Meeker’s comments about the Wake County School board’s policy direction. My understanding is that Mayor Meeker wants to form a group of local leaders to see if what is being done is legal and if not then he intends to file suit. In the interview I stated that I would rather not comment on what Meeker said without talking to him first. Then I was asked about my personal opinion. My response was that I can only speak as mayor and as mayor it is my responsibility to work with any school board that is elected. This includes the majority members and minority members. I have followed this policy since being elected in 2007. I meet and/or talk regularly with school board members. I feel that I have a strong relationship with several of the current school board members on both sides of the issues.

After the WRAL interview I met with representatives from the SV Temple. They recently had a complaint about noise and wanted to make sure I knew they complied. These people desperately want to be good neighbors and good citizens of the town. I am thankful they are here in Cary.

The council meeting followed and lasted only 55 minutes. The main topic was the budget and there was only one issue which was brought up by council member Frantz. He was opposed to the $348 million budget because there was a transportation cost increase for council members. The increase amounted to around $10 a month. While I respect his opinion, I do not believe this is a reason to vote against a budget which has the lowest tax rate in Wake County with the highest level of service.

Emails this week were mostly about abortion with most of them asking us to keep it in our health care plan. Other emails included a comment against shared sick leave and a comment against Mayor Meeker’s position against the school board.

Next week is 4^th of July week. Currently I have a couple of meetings scheduled and a ribbon cutting for the new Raleigh-Garner-Cary animal shelter.

Well that is all for this week. My next post will be on Sunday, July 4^th. Please feel free to email me with a comment.

This week consisted mostly of meetings, an interview, and a reception.

On Monday evening I was interviewed by the Cary Citizen. We talked for about an hour and a half. Our discussion covered anything and everything you can think of related to Cary. We probably could have easily talked for another hour and a half but fortunate for them I had another engagement to get to. I really loved the article. The Cary Citizen does a great job of fair and balanced writing. There was only one error/misspeak in the article. When I talked about green businesses I was praising our Gold LEED certified businesses in town. Those businesses are McDonalds on Kildaire and Siemens. Somehow the article says McDonalds and ABB instead of McDonalds and Siemens. While ABB was one of the new businesses that came to Cary last year along with Deutsche Bank, it is not in a Gold LEED certified building. Anyway, if you would like to read more the interview can be found at http://www.carycitizen.com/2010/06/15/profile-cary-mayor-harold-weinbrecht.

Tuesday I blocked any evening business with the town so that I could pick up my daughter who was coming home from Italy. She made it safe and sound on time even though her luggage didn’t. Fortunately, her luggage arrived a couple of days later.

Wednesday I attended a legislative reception hosted by the Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce. In attendance were most of the movers and shakers in the area. Most of the locale legislative delegation made an appearance along with local elected leaders from the various Wake County municipalities. In my talks with the legislators we mostly discussed the email list proposal being considered. Based on what I heard this may be voted on during the next week. If it passes the law will allow anyone to view the town’s email lists but the town wouldn’t be required to provide the list. This would be a big improvement. While at the reception I also talked with leaders from Fayetteville on the relationships between the county and municipalities. Before leaving I had discussions with several of the sponsors including Hospice of Wake County which recently opened a facility in Cary.

Thursday was the quarterly meeting of the Economic Development Governing Board. In case you are wondering who makes up that board it includes the mayor, town manager, a council member, and two members of the chamber. Information presented on unemployment showed that Cary’s unemployment rate through April was 6.2% (down from 6.5% in March) which shows we are still doing better than anyone else in the region. At the same time, a majority of more than 1100 Chief Financial Officers polled in a recent survey said their firms would not return to pre-recession levels of employment until 2012 at the earliest. So it looks like unemployment rates are going to remain about the same or slightly better over the next couple of years. Additional information on existing business and industry was also presented:

• John Deere is relocating its engineering center from Charlotte to Cary. It will move approximately 90 jobs to Cary.
• Sears Regional Routing call center has consolidated to Cary. This brings about 115 jobs averaging about $30,000 a year.
• Ply Gem, which relocated its headquarters to Cary in October 2007, have employed 58 people so far with jobs averaging $78,000.
• Garmin International is settling into Regency Park and has employed about 40 researchers and engineers so far.
• The new Siemens gold LEED facility will increase employees by 300 over the next few years that will bring their total employment to 1000.
• The Wake County Public Schools will move its main administrative offices to Cary’s Crossroads Corporate Park over the next year.

There were several new recruitment projects in progress which include:

• A telecommunications company with about 200 jobs that hopes to make a decision within the next month.
• A home health care provider from Pinehurst
• A law firm from Virginia
• A California firm looking to open a lab
• A 2^nd telecommunication company looking for office space

The business outlook still looks cautiously optimistic as we continue to experience a long slow recovery from this recession.

Thursday night I met privately with an individual who helps maintain my personal web page on which this blog is posted.

Saturday I attended the 10^th Anniversary of the Koka Booth amphitheater. There was a reception before the 7:30 concert that was attended by former mayor Booth, former town manager Coleman, Mr. Woolner who owns Regency, Mr. Wolters who is President of the Symphony, council members Portman and Adcock, town manager Shivar, and several others. We were treated with cupcakes and champagne  and I toasted the first ten years of the symphony and Booth amphitheater. At 7:30 I said a few words, read and presented a proclamation to the Symphony President David Wolters.

A biannual survey was held this year. Following the survey two focus groups gave their opinions about the results. Those results were provided to council members this week. There were several interesting facts that came out of the groups that included:

• The two groups were divided on whether or not the town should provide growth rates.
• Both groups named several traffic problem areas mostly on the western part of town and downtown.
• Both groups complained about potholes especially on Maynard and Kildaire Farm but neither realized those were state roads.
• Both groups felt Cary was presently doing a good job of living within its budget.
• Both groups supported adding more council members due to the growth in town.
• The groups made suggestions on communications including: improvements to Channel 11, representing all regions effectively, and creating an online suggestion box.

Emails this week included complaints about road safety, noise, excess development around Jordan Lake, abortion, and shared sick leave.

Next week will be busy for me with a mayor’s association outing, a two minute state of the town, a taping of Cary Matters, and a council meeting to approve the budget.

Well that is all for this week. My next post will be on Sunday, June 27^th. Please feel free to email me with a comment.

This week was a busy week with a budget work session, a council meeting, and high school graduations.

On Monday I met with staff, directors, and management about Thursday’s council agenda. Our estimation at this point in time was that the council meeting would be fairly short since the only item of contention seemed to be the special use application for a communications tower.

Tuesday I met with the finance directors and attorneys to sign bonds. Since the mayor has to sign all official documents there were a lot of bonds for me to sign. Nevertheless, the entire process only took 10 to 15 minutes.

Tuesday night was the second work session on the budget. Our first discussion centered on potholes. First a little background on the pothole situation in Cary. The town has received 95 complaints about potholes on Cary roads and has fixed all of them. There have been 334 complaints about potholes that are the responsibility of the NCDOT. Cary deemed that 13 were dangerous and fixed them. NCDOT has yet to repair these potholes. The budget question that I asked council was if we should consider repairing some of those potholes. The council wants NCDOT to fix their own potholes and is not interested in fixing them for NCDOT. My concern is that the number of potholes is having an effect on quality of life in Cary. Some of these state roads, like Maynard, are in very poor shape. The town will continue to ask NCDOT to fix these roads. If you want to know which of these roads are the responsibility of NCDOT you can go to http://209.42.194.57/CaryMap/ViewMap.aspx?ItemID=39&PortalID=1.

Our second discussion at the work session was on the operating margin. Council member Frantz and Portman expressed a concern about future revenue projections being lower than future expenditure projections. What is important to remember is that our revenue projections are extremely conservative. For example, this year we will receive an excess of over $4 million in revenues over the revenue projections. So the projections are somewhat misleading in that they are mostly a worse case scenario.

Next the council discussed the proposed downtown manager and whether or not this should be a town position or position associated with a private organization. The town manager expressed the need for coordination between planning and implementation with the manager. The town manager also expressed that with the substantial financial commitment, council should be able to control costs. One other point the town manager made was that the downtown manager should meet a goal of ten times his cost with generated tax base. So basically to have better control of the downtown manager the town manager believed it should be a town position. After his explanation the council agreed.

Our last budget discussion was on whether or not we should make a decision to take abortion out of the health care plan. There was no motion made on this topic. First let me say that I have strong personal beliefs on this issue. Having said that, I don’t believe it is a local government’s responsibility to question Supreme Court decisions regardless of how strong we feel about a decision. This particular coverage hasn’t cost Cary a penny in the last five years so it is a political and moral issue. And the Supreme Court has ruled that this is a legal medical issue. I think it is important for everyone to know how political this issue is. A local political party has performed polling and identify that 70% of voters oppose having this in the health care plan. The problem with this poll is that the implication is Cary is spending money on this which is not true for the last five years. So, this controversial issue is being used as an important political “wedge” that can help their candidates. Iit is clear to me that someone is using this for political gain which is unfortunate. The Cary council is better than that and is more professional than that. We should stick to issues that directly affect our citizens that we have authority to address, not question Supreme Court decisions.

On Wednesday we held our biweekly council meeting. We scheduled this council meeting on a Wednesday so that council members could attend high school graduations for local Cary High Schools. As predicted at the agenda meeting on Monday, the major focus of the council meeting was the special use hearing on the communications tower.

Thursday I attended two high school graduations on behalf of Cary. Green Hope High School was at 8 AM and Panther Creek was at 8 PM. Panther Creek was graduating the first class that went to Panther Creek all four years of high school.

Friday I attended the graduation of Cary High School. This is the oldest high school in Cary and has a lot of tradition. It was fun to watch the parents, teachers, and administration interact with each other. There is a strong bond between them at this school and you really feel it.

Saturday I attended a free health fair at the Morrisville Hindu Temple. This health fair is held once a year and approximately 60 doctors provide free medical services for anyone. The organizers expressed a desire to get the word out that this is open to the public not just to the Indian community. It is my hope that we can help them get the word out in the future.

Sunday I attended a fundraiser for County Commissioner candidate Steve Rao. The event was well attended and included Congressman Brad Miller, the Secretary of Treasurer Janet Cowell, Raleigh Mayor Charles Meeker, several state representatives and council members from Raleigh, Cary, and Morrisville. I have known Steve for years and believe he has a key ingredient that makes him a future great leader. And that is the desire to serve others.

There have been tons of email during the last two weeks including a request for a duck crossing sign, many requests for a screening wall at Cameron Pond, a request to put the guardrail between the sidewalk and road on Kildaire Farm Road, a complaint about the appearance of Waverly Place, several about a cell tower (which I couldn’t read because it was a quasi judicial matter), and information about our Cary Teen Council receiving a national award for service.

Next week looks a little lighter than this week and includes an interview, a legislative reception, and a meeting of the Economic Development Board.

Well that is all for this week. My next post will be on Sunday, June 20^th. Please feel free to email me with a comment.

This week was a busy week with an intercity visit to Carmel, Indiana and a long council meeting.

Monday started with phone calls to the council members for questions or comments that may concern them with the regular council meeting’s agenda. Unfortunately, I was only able to get in contact with one council member and left messages with the others.

Monday afternoon I met with staff directors to go over the agenda. This agenda was full of items that would generate a lot of discussion so I knew it would be a long meeting. I guessed it would take about 4 hours which would have put us at 10:30. Boy was I wrong. We didn’t actually get out of the meeting until close to 12:30. The meeting had four public hearings including a special use public hearing. Since that is quasi judicial the speakers didn’t have time limits.

Monday evening I taped the June episode of Cary Matters with council member Portman. The main topic was on floodwater issues. The question and answer portion of the episode included water conservation, internet service in public places, and unwanted material on mailboxes. We were able to knock this recording session out in about 45 minutes.

Tuesday, I along with roughly 30 others boarded a plane for Indianapolis for the Cary Chamber’s intercity visit. We arrived around 9:30 AM and started with a bus tour of Indianapolis. Lunch was held at the Lucas Oil Stadium (where the Colts play) with Carmel Mayor, Jim Brainard and several representatives of the NCAA which is headquarted in Indianapolis. The NCAA representatives are very important for Cary since we are one of the six NCAA championship cities in the US and want to continue to hold NCAA championships in Cary. The rest of the day was spent visiting sites such as the Carmel city square, their arts district, and one of the key roundabout interchanges (similar to US64 in Cary).

Wednesday started with a breakfast meeting at the hotel where we heard from a county commissioner on transit and several members of the Carmel staff on transit and road projects. The rest of Wednesday morning was spent visiting the Carmel aquatics center which was very impressive and even had several water park features such as giant slides and a lazy river. After lunch we finally got to a discussion of how Carmel paid for all the amenities they had. It turns out that they get about $30 million a year in income tax revenue in addition to a property tax rate that is about 40% higher than ours (assuming ours and the county rate were combined since they have their own school system).

On the way to the airport the bus went by the Indianapolis Speedway. It was “community day” as part of the Indianapolis 500 celebration which means people can ride around the track. So we asked if we could take the bus around the track. We were allowed to enter the infield and were queued up but were not actually allowed on the track. Oh well, it was impressive being in the infield anyway.

All in all it was a great trip. There were a lot of impressive things to see in Carmel which has about half our population. They are known in the region as the town with the roundabouts. Currently, they have around 60 of them. The one thing that stuck with me the most is how much more revenue they get than Cary. If we had their amount of revenue we could probably do wonderful things in short order. But in Cary I believe people want their representatives to be very conservative with their tax dollars and I believe our council does exactly that.

Thursday’s council meeting lasted close to six hours. Two of those hours were spent on the special use hearing that I mentioned earlier. Other discussions that took time included the Park at Westlake (approved), the Historic Preservation Master Plan (approved), the Cameron Pond Wall recommendation (approved), and the road waiver for Stone School Supply Store(approved). I voted against the road waiver because I strongly feel that waiving road improvements causes the next development to pay for them or the citizens to pay for them. One important point that I try to make is that someone WILL pay for them. In the past, it has been the taxpayers subsidizing development at over 90% in some cases. I want to make sure we don’t go back to that amount of subsidy. Having said that, I think it is important to do all we can to encourage new businesses in Cary. Balance is the key and that is how I approach each case.

Emails this week included a call for my resignation because I allegedly mix politics and religion and don’t know about the separation of church and state. Hmmm. I am very sure I do know and don’t mix them. Anyway, other emails included several requests for the wall option from Cameron Pond residents, several complaints about bridge guardrails on Kildaire Farm road near Lochmere, questions about Waverly place, a complaint about the lack of sidewalks on Dynasty Drive,  requests for money for non profits, and concerns about our fire policy on pine straw.

Next week I will be in Hilton Head so I won’t have anything to post other than I had a good vacation (I hope).

Well that is all for this week. My next post will be on Sunday, June 13^th. Please feel free to email me with a comment.

This week was a busy week with several receptions/dinners and a budget work session.

Monday I played my annual round of golf at the Augusta National Golf Course. Or maybe I should say the golf course played me. I only had a couple of good holes, the par 5 8^th and the infamous par 3 16^th. I played the 8^th very well and had about a 10 foot putt for birdie but missed. The 16^th I had about a 12 foot putt for birdie but missed. Although I didn’t score well I had a great time. It was a bit rainy for the first 7 holes but the sun came out and it was beautiful for the rest of the day. It was an honor and privilege to be able to play this course.

Tuesday was the first budget work session. Budget Director Scott Fogleman went over the budget and answered a few questions. To sum up the proposed budget: remain conservative, hold the tax rate, and hold on any major expenses. I think the council will come to an agreement soon about the budget with little or no modifications to the proposed budget.

Wednesday I started by attending the Cary Chamber’s Economic Development Industry Appreciation reception at MacGregor Downs. There were about three dozen industry leaders in attendance including one of our newest businesses Deutsche Bank. I gave a few words of welcome and thanked all the businesses for being in Cary and for supporting charities in the area.

Later Wednesday I met with major investors of Waverly Place. They provided drawings of a proposal to redo Waverly Place. If approved and built it will cost them about $40 million for the changes. Once completed the center will be a destination place with water features, fire pits, plenty of outdoor seating, and even an area for entertainment or small markets.

Thursday I attended a reception for the NCAA Division II baseball championship. This was a gathering of about three dozen people including members of the NCAA, Mount Olive College (co-host), the Greater Raleigh Convention and Visitors Bureau, USA baseball, and National Training Center Staff. I gave a few words of welcome and promised a weekend of good weather. I guess it is a good thing that I don’t predict weather for a living. Cary is very fortunate to be an inaugural NCAA Championship city and holding championships in several sports including baseball.

Friday I attended a luncheon being held for Mary Henderson who is retiring as Director of Parks Recreation and Cultural Resources Director. Mary has been with the town 28 years and has basically worked in the department as the town has grown from a few thousand people to the seventh largest municipality of North Carolina. Through her work we have an accredited, national recognized, award winning department and one of the most desirable places to live in the United States. Mary is a big part of Cary’s success and she will be sorely missed. The reception was well attended and was a who’s who in Cary’s past with former mayors, former council members, former and current staff, and friends and family.

Friday night I attended the NCAA Division II baseball banquet. This was attended by all the people from the reception Thursday night but this time included players from all eight teams. These players were all glad to be at the championship and had great things to say about our facility. Here are a few of the quotes I received from a news report about the Kutztown players:

“It is just unbelievable how nice this place is.”

“You just dream about playing in a beautiful facility like this.”

“This facility is like the Taj Mahal of baseball complexes.”

“This is something you have to see for yourself. It’s by far the greatest field I have ever played on.”

“This is just a first class facility and I can see why the NCAA chose Cary to host the championships.”

Emails this week included complaints about a sex offender, sidewalks, potholes, annexation, and a request to fund a wall at Cameron Pond.

Next week I will be on an intercity visit to Carmel Indiana. We will also have our last council meeting in May.

Well that is all for this week. I will be on vacation starting Saturday so my next post will be on Friday, May 28^th. Please feel free to email me with a comment.

This week was a busy week which included a council meeting and some interesting events.

Monday started with the usual agenda meeting. In attendance were town management, directors, attorneys, and the town clerk staff. Earlier in the day I called council members to see if there were questions or comments about the agenda. The two items of interest included allowing employees to share sick leave and whether or not to try for LEED certification for fire station #8.

On Tuesday I was a judge in a biscuit contest held at the Gold LEED McDonalds on Kildaire Farm Road. This is the first time I have ever been a judge in a food contest. I was judging with a food writer from the N&O who had done many food judging competitions. She warned me in the beginning to take very small bites. Well, I was a little hungry so I took large bites. By the 10th contestant I was more than full. Although the contestants, from all over the region, used the same ingredients and the same oven the biscuits were different. I was told that the difference was created in the preparation and the cooking. And I COULD tell.  The judging criteria we used were appearance (pimply golden on top with white sides and 1 ½ inches high), taste (melts in your mouth and of course tastes good), and presentation (interesting since most cooks spoke very little English). The winner got a cash prize and was able to compete in the next level of competition. I was also a winner (in a sense) because I left with a food gift certificate, a pin, and a McDonald’s apron. It was a LOT of fun and I really enjoyed it. However, I will probably skip the biscuits for a while.

Tuesday evening I had an informal interview with a reporter from the Triangle Business Journal. They are interested in doing several interviews in the future with me regarding our downtown area. Some of their interest peaks around the railroad and how it impacts the downtown area. I explained that we currently had 3 major crossings. All of these are “at grade” meaning they do not have a bridge or tunnel and require crossing arms. Cary is in the process of designing a tunnel at Walker Street which will give the downtown a grade separated crossing. This is important because NCDOT Rail plans to increase traffic on the rail over the next few years. One of the goals of the high speed rail is to reduce and/or eliminate at grade crossings from Raleigh of Charlotte. This would include Cary crossings at Maynard, Academy, and Harrison. However, eliminating or grade separating those crossings will be difficult because of several reasons: 1) they are vital links that connect the town, 2) the rail station is being rebuilt with federal dollars fixing the vertical and horizontal position of the tracks at Maynard and Harrison, and 3) the tunnel at Walker Street will also fix the vertical and horizontal position of the tracks. And of course all the rail issues could have a significant impact on how our town develops in the future. More on this at a later date.

Wednesday I played in a 4 game tennis exhibition at the Cary Tennis Park as part of the Senior Appreciation Day. Our exhibition included the head pro Sean Ferreira, Western Wake Tennis Association Donna Gast, NC Tennis Association Kelly Gaines and myself. I got off to a slow start but was paired with Kelly Gaines who is a strong player. We rallied to end in a 2-2 tie. It was a lot of fun and I really enjoyed it. I thanked the crowd for their attendance and support of the Cary Tennis Center and encouraged them to help get youth interested in the game to keep it moving forward.

Wednesday evening I attended the “Step into Africa the AIDS crisis” exhibit being held at the YMCA on Cary Parkway. This exhibit allowed you to step from room to room as the story was presented via headphones. Volunteers also interacted with you to enhance the experience. The experience walked you through the tragic lives of those who have AIDS in Africa and the help they need. It was a moving experience and I was glad I went.

Thursday I met with Hub Sum representatives to brainstorm on events for this year. I am an honorary member of Hub Sum board. Their biggest event is Diwali which will be held in September. This will be the 10th year of the Diwali celebration in Cary. The Diwali celebration is Cary’s biggest event at the amphitheater and usually draws in the 12 to 15 thousand range. We brainstormed about ideas of promoting the event to help Cary citizens understand that this is a Cary event and not an Indian event.

Thursday night’s council meeting focused on two topics as predicted. The first discussion was the shared sick leave which was a staff recommendation that came from council direction. I agreed with the staff report but also wanted it to go back to committee to get more information about further things we could do. The majority of council agreed.  The second item that generated discussion was on whether or not to pay for LEED to certify the new fire station being built. The council decided to not pursue LEED certification because of the $41,000 cost. I contended that the staff cost of ensuring the fire station met the green standards might be the same as or exceed the cost of the LEED certification by a third party. We have no way of knowing since this information wasn’t provided but we do know significant staff time will be involved. It is also disappointing to me that we ask our citizens and businesses to become more environmentally sensitive and encourage their LEED certification but we don’t. Thank goodness for McDonalds (Ric Richards), Siemens, and SAS who continue to step forward to lead our community in LEED certification.

Friday I briefly attended the Public Works celebration over at the town facility on James Jackson Avenue. Our public works people go out of their way to bring the best possible service to our citizens. A perfect example was three of them who noticed 6 year old and 10 year old girls walking next to US1. They called police and stayed with the girls until the authorities arrived. Thank God they cared. Without them there might have been an unthinkable tragedy. At the event on Friday I thanked the three men: Cliff Norman, Larry Coe, and John Spey. Their acts were heroic in my eyes.

Friday night I attended a private dinner with a friend and member of the Indian Community’s political action committee. We had great food and conversation and of course talked politics. I look forward to their support next year.

Emails this week included a complaint about the required irrigation backflow testing, a complaint about barking dogs, a complaint about a water bill, a complaint about a utility project on Stephens Road, a request to make fire station #8 LEED certified, an invitation to an eagle scout ceremony, and a request for an interview.

Next week looks busy for me. On Monday I have the privilege of playing the Augusta National Golf course which is one of the most, if not the most, prestigious privately owned golf courses. The rest of the week includes a budget work session, a couple of receptions, a retirement ceremony, and a banquet. I will probably be speaking at all of these which require some preparation on my part.

Well that is all for this week. I plan to next post on Sunday, May 23^rd. Please feel free to email me with a comment.

This week was about meetings and a graduation ceremony.

On Monday I met with a president of a homeowner’s association about a water leak that created a water bill of several thousand dollars. While I couldn’t personally help them in my capacity as mayor, I did listen and suggest people they should contact.

Tuesday I met with the town manager and mayor pro-tem to go over any pressing issues. One item I have asked for is a map to be put on line that will distinguish DOT roads and Cary roads. People are constantly complaining about roads and it is hard for citizens, council members, and staff to know what roads belong to whom. Hopefully, this new map will be available soon and be a great reference for all.

Wednesday I met with developers on a potential residential development in the Weston Office Park. Basically, they wanted to know if I would support this. Usually, I am not a big supporter of swapping office for residential but the Weston Office park would probably benefit a better mix of uses. So I would be willing to see the details of this case.

Wednesday night I attended the 27^th graduation ceremony of Citizens Police Academy. I am proud that Cary has citizens who not only want to learn about our police department but want to assist in making the best police department in the state even better. God bless each and every one of them.

Thursday I met with a gentleman who is interested in downtown revitalization and development. This person had a lot of ideas and our discussion was about all the possibilities for Cary’s downtown area. It is my hope that we can make downtown more of a destination point in the future. This year’s budget will have an item for a downtown manager. It will be interesting to see if council will support that.

Emails this week included a complaint about sidewalk and guardrails on Kildaire Farm Road, several complaints about a bridge in Weston Manor, a request to make our new fire station LEED certified, several complaints about roads in the Green Level area, a complaint about mailbox damage, and a complaint about the convenient center.

The most interesting announcement this week came from a press release stating that Cary now has the highest bond rating for Revenue bonds. There are three types of bonds: General Obligation bonds (voter approved) which has the lowest interest rate, Revenue bonds which has the second lowest interest rate, and asset bonds. Cary has had the highest rating for General Obligation bonds for years. Now we have the highest bond rating for our Revenue bonds as well. This will result in lower tax rates and savings for our taxpayers.

Next week promises to be a busy week. In addition to a council meeting, I will be judging a biscuit bakeoff and participating in an exhibition at the Cary Tennis Park. Should be fun.

Well that is all for this week. I plan to next post on Sunday, May 16^th. Please feel free to email me with a comment.