This week was a regularly scheduled council meeting week. In addition, to  staff and council meetings, I met with the developer of Cameron Pond, met with residents of Green Level, participated in a work session,  interviewed with six student ambassadors, and participated in two political events.

Monday I met with Colen Davidson and Jason Bertancino of Impact Cameron Pond. We talked about various issues that led up to the buffer clearing at Cameron Pond. They wanted my thoughts of the vegetation plan and I expressed a desire to see a proposal before giving them feedback. Staff and the developer promised to have one ready by the following afternoon. Unfortunately, it wasn’t ready until the day of the council meeting so council decided to delay their decision on the vegetation plan until they had time to review the plan in more detail.

Tuesday I met with residents from the historic area of Green Level. Their father left a residential structure vacant inside an area designated as historic. Town staff is currently working on the Historic Master Plan which will put architectural restrictions on new structures in historic districts. The problem they expressed was that the house no longer had plumbing and electricity. The only options were to demolish it or move it. It is too expensive to move and they really don’t want to demolish it for sentimental reasons. In addition, developers of the area were being cautious because this was designated as historic and they were not sure of what they would be required to do with this structure. Staff agreed to continue to work with these residents on this problem. The residents wanted this meeting with me to make sure I was aware of the issue.

Tuesday evening the council held a work session to appoint the new members of boards and commissions. These selections will be ratified by council at the September 10^th council meeting. This was the first time the appointment of the new board and commission was done under the new process created by this council. I want to point out that this entire process was open to the public and all comments, discussions, etc, were done in open meetings as they should be. This process was an important initiative when I took office in December of 2007.

Wednesday afternoon I did the taping of the September Cary Matters with Erv Portman. Our main topic will be about Cary’s role in road improvements. The Question and Answer portion will focus on Cary’s new championship tennis ladder and the new Hometown spirit award which I will talk about later.

Wednesday night I attended a fundraiser for Mayor Pro-Tem Julie Robison which was held at former council member Marla Dorrel’s home. There was a good crowd of supporters there. Elected officials included Erv Portman and myself from the Cary council and Sally Kost of the Chatham County commissioners. I had to leave the event early since it was my wife’s birthday. Luckily my wife and I still had plenty of time to enjoy a wonderful dinner at Maximillians.

Thursday before the council meeting I was interviewed by six student ambassadors from various middle schools and high schools. Some of the questions included “What is the hardest thing about being mayor?” and “What is the thing you like the most about being mayor?” Of course the hardest part is the time commitment. The thing I like the most is that I am blessed to be able to meet all kinds of people. I really enjoyed the interview, which was videotaped, and they said they planned on putting it online in the future. I can’t wait to see that myself.

Thursday night was a regularly scheduled council meeting. The two biggest items were the Amberly Planned Development District Public Hearing and the closed session. There were a lot of council questions and public questions about the proposed amendment to the Amberly development. I voted for a motion to call for a new public hearing which failed. Nevertheless, the public should have ample opportunities to speak at every council meeting before this goes to the Planning and Zoning Board for review on November 16^th. In closed session we discussed five items which of course I can’t elaborate on. I can tell you that one item generated great debate that lasted for over an hour.

Saturday night I attended a gathering of the Wake Schools Community Alliance in Cary. There were several of these events all over the county. I was asked to speak about grass roots efforts in campaigns. I talked about how being outspent 5 to 1 in my election and was still able to succeed thanks to a huge volunteer effort. BTW, in case you don’t know or forgot, that effort knocked on about 12,000 doors which is unheard of.

Emails this week included a reminder of Cary’s New Hometown Spirit award. This new award will be given annually to an individual who enhances the quality of life in Cary by preserving, promoting and carrying out positive and quantifiable traditional small-town community values and traits as embodied in at least one the following criteria:

- Helps out neighbors and fellow Cary residents
- Demonstrates hospitality
- Promotes and preserves traditional American past-times
- Shows a concern for preservation and works to preserve traditions and the small-town atmosphere in the community
- Promotes entrepreneurship through supporting locally owned business
- Promotes a sense of community in their neighborhood and all of Cary
- Demonstrates patriotism through promotion and preservation of the country’s symbols and dedication to the U.S. military, past and present
- Serves the community through business

To receive the award one must be 21 years old and a Cary resident. Town employees, current or former elected officials, and memorial nominations in honor of deceased residents are not eligible for this award. Nominations for the first award are going on now through October 9^th. The first Hometown Spirit award will be announced on November 12^th and will be honored at a reception on December 5^th. So start thinking about the special people you know here in Cary and nominate them for this special award.

This week I received many emails concerning three neighborhoods: Cameron Pond, Carolina Preserve, and Silverton. I also received emails about a school bus stop safety issue, Cary Community Arts Center, transmission tower rules, and the town’s electronic email list.

Regarding the town’s electronic email list… unfortunately, these are public record as required by law. So unfortunately, anyone can request these lists. I believe it is in the citizen’s best interest to keep these email addresses private. I would be in support of asking our legislators to make sure that we are able to maintain the privacy of our citizens while still being able to communicate with them by the most efficient means, email. We’ll see if we can make that happen.

Well that is about it for this week. I plan to post on Sunday, September 6^th. Please feel free to leave a comment on my post.

This week was a light week relatively speaking. It included meetings with Wake County mayors, teen council, a Hindu group, and the mayor of Hsinchu City, Taiwan.

On Monday I met with the mayors of Wake County at the monthly Mayors Association meeting. Some of the topics we discussed included whether or not to take a position as a group, officers for next year, and the Christmas Party. The meeting was attended by 9 of the 12 mayors.

Tuesday I congratulated the Cary Teen Council on twenty years of service to the community in a ceremony held in the council chambers. I was joined by council members Jack Smith and Julie Robison. It is important to point out that these teens provide hundreds of hours of volunteer time which saves our taxpayers thousands and thousands of dollars. In addition, their efforts help keep our events, like Lazy Daze, top notch events. Cary Teen Council now has over 400 members. I would invite anyone that has a teen in the family to get them involved in this remarkable group.

On Thursday I met with a group of adults and youth about the Hindi festival of Raksha Bandhan. This is a Hindu festival, which celebrates the relationship between brothers and sisters. The festival is marked by the tying of a rakhi, or holy thread by the sister on the wrist of her brother. The brother in return vows to look after her. This group of volunteers in Cary has expanded this festival beyond brothers and sisters. They have been visiting fire fighters, police officers, and elected officials and tying a rakhi around their wrists. I was blessed to have two rakhis tied to my wrist. They also presented me with a gift and promised to pray for me in my service to the town. Being faith based, I very much appreciated their kind and generous blessings and prayers and vowed to look after them and all the citizens of Cary.

Saturday I opened the 33^rd annual Lazy Daze. I was joined on the stage by council members Jack Smith and Jennifer Robinson. Special guests included the mayor of Hsinchu City, Taiwan and several other dignitaries. After the opening ceremony I escorted the mayor and guests around Lazy Daze, gave them a tour of town hall, and then joined them for lunch in the Beer Garden. The mayor and his guests were very kind and very complimentary of Cary. They expressed how beautiful Cary was and how happy everyone seemed. I was also invited to visit him in Hsinchu City. Now all I have to do is save a little money for the trip. It was truly a joy and a privilege to be with these special guests. Our sister cities commission did a great job of hosting and represented the town well.

Tonight I will be attending the OAR concert at the amphitheater. While I have heard of one of their songs they basically are a mystery to me. I guess I will know more about them after tonight.

Emails this week included complaints about a sewer manhole, complaints about the lack of sidewalks at West Cary schools, complaints about lawn service contractors, and complaints about flooding issues. I received several invitations this week that included the Panther Creek Invitational, the Memory Walk for Alzheimer’s, political fund raisers, and a black tie event.

Well that is about it for this week. I plan to post on Sunday, August 30^th. Please feel free to leave a comment on my post.

UPDATE ON CAMERON POND:

I was made aware that some of my earlier comments on Cameron Pond might be subject to misinterpretation. I have edited my comments discussing Cameron Pond from my July 25th and August 9th entries. The Cameron Pond buffer is an unfortunate situation. The Cary Town council is working with the parties involved and will do what we can to make it right.

This week consisted mostly of meetings that included meetings with transit leaders, citizens, and Wake County elected officials.

Monday started with an agenda meeting. Staff and I reviewed the agenda and believed the presentations combined with the closed session would make for a long meeting. We were right as the meeting lasted until sometime after 11:30.

After the agenda meeting I met with David King of Triangle Transit who gave a planning update from his staff. He presented a report which had a lot of interesting data about future transit stops. In the report were graphs and charts that showed RTP would be a difficult destination for transit due to the need of further transit to reach places of employment. Information also showed the need for density near transit stops such as the one in NW Cary near Cary Parkway and Highway 54. It was also pointed out that even though we now have the authority to put a ½ sales tax for transit on the ballot, it would probably be a bad idea during these tough economic times. It will be interesting to see the direction this area decides to go in the future especially if gas gets back to $4 a gallon or higher.

Tuesday began with a brief meeting with the town manager before heading to a work session. In the work session we talked about the boards and commissions structure and council communications. We have data collected about council communications but it was not available for the work session. I was able to see it and on a scale between 1 and 10 the council self rated on an average of 7 or higher. It was interesting that on some questions council members gave a 5 or 6 while others gave an 8 or higher. This tells me that we are viewing communications differently and still have work to do to perform better as a team.

Wednesday’s first meeting was with staff and a consultant on preparing for the SAS Championship. The Championship will be held from September 25^th through 27^th. I have once again been asked to play in the pro am. Last year my foursome played with the eventual winner Romero. We’ll see how this year goes. I will once again ask council member Jack Smith to play along with me. We also discussed whether or not I will be doing an introduction on the golf channel. They may decide to use the one from last year. One thing I never expected in life was to see my face on the golf channel.

Wednesday night I attended the Chamber of Commerce’s Leadership dinner held at Rey’s Restaurant in Cary. Elected officials in attendance were Congressmen David Price and Brad Miller, several NC legislators, several county commissioners, and several school board members. The dinner was spectacular, the sponsors were great, and the chamber did a wonderful job putting this together. The one interesting incident was when Ron Margiotta and Brad Miller got into it on Healthcare reform. Congressman Miller was asked to speak about what he was working on and was interrupted by Margiotta’s wife who asked him a question about his statements on healthcare reform. Then Margiotta stated he was offended that this dinner turned into a political event and said if he would have known that he wouldn’t have attended. Fortunately, they were asked to take the discussion offline and the rest of the evening was eventless.

Thursday first meeting was with Mayor Pro-Tem Robison as she briefed me on inter governmental meetings she attended on my behalf. Since I work at SAS during the day, I depend on Ms. Robison to represent Cary at the meetings before 5 PM.

Thursday night’s council meeting was dominated by three significant issues: the Issue Advisory request for a group to study allowing chickens in Cary, the request to get information on allowing shared employee sick leave, and a closed session issue. It was a long night as I finally got to bed around 12:30. This is tough when I have to get up by 6 the next morning.

On Saturday and today I worked on the September episode of Cary Matters. The toughest part of writing this is deciding on a main topic. I decided that the main topic would be Cary’s role in road improvements. Examples will include: the Maynard Road widening, the traffic signal at Cary Glen Boulevard and Green Level to Durham Road, the input session on no left turns at Cary Parkway and High House, and the study on the US64 corridor. Questions and answers will address the new Championship tennis ladder and the new Hometown Spirit award.

The new Hometown Spirit award will be given annually to an individual who enhances the quality of life in Cary by preserving, promoting and carrying out positive and quantifiable traditional small-town community values and traits as embodied in at least one the following criteria:

- Helps out neighbors and fellow Cary residents
- Demonstrates hospitality
- Promotes and preserves traditional American past-times
- Shows a concern for preservation and works to preserve traditions and the small-town atmosphere in the community
- Promotes entrepreneurship through supporting locally owned business
- Promotes a sense of community in their neighborhood and all of Cary
- Demonstrates patriotism through promotion and preservation of the country’s symbols and dedication to the U.S. military, past and present
- Serves the community through business

To receive the award one must be 21 years old and a Cary resident. Town employees, current or former elected officials, and memorial nominations in honor of deceased residents are not eligible for this award. Nominations for the first award are going on now through October 9^th. The first Hometown Spirit award will be announced on November 12^th and will be honored at a reception on December 5^th. So start thinking about the special people you know here in Cary and nominate them for this special award.

Emails this week included several for and against allowing chickens in Cary. Emails also included a complaint about not allowing wine at Lazy Daze, information about not allowing parking in yards, and a complaint about drainage on Webster Street.

Well that is about it for this week. I plan to post on Sunday, August 25^th. Please feel free to leave a comment on my post.

The majority of this week was spent on events and meetings involving citizens.

Monday I met with the Chairman of the Environmental Advisory Board and the staff liaison to that board. Since the board was created a few months ago they have been mostly working at defining their mission and high level ideals. They are now interested in bringing issues forward for staff and council to consider. We agreed to try one or two small issues to help define the process by which these issues can best be brought forward.

Tuesday afternoon I traveled to Cisco in RTP participate in a teleconference with staff and council members of Carmel Indiana. We discussed their innovative approaches to highways that are adjacent and divide residential and commercial areas. This was in response to the concerns about the NCDOT’s proposal to make US64 a super highway which angered residents in the MacGregor area. The Carmel folks provided wonderful alternatives for us to consider. Their two presentations were attended by NCDOT officials, Cary staff, Cary council members, MacGregor residents, transit interests, and several others.

Tuesday night was National Night Out which was a nationwide crime and drug prevention event. Cary has participated in this for many years. In the past police, fire, and council members have traveled to various neighborhoods to promote the event. While we still did a few neighborhood visits we also set up events in our three GeoPolicing districts. I participated in the event set up at Crossroads shopping center. We were fortunate enough to have several businesses sponsor the event. Some of them included Best Buy, Dickey’s BBQ, Coffee and Crepes, Chick-Fil-A, and Bear Rock Café. This location was well attended and we were fortunate enough to have Axle the dog from our K-9 unit (who is about to retire). We were well represented by our police and fire departments including about 20 to 30 officers. This was probably the safest place to be in town on Tuesday night.

Wednesday afternoon I traveled to Raleigh to present a proclamation to Bob Woodard who turned 106 in July. Bob has lived in this area all his life and is a big baseball fan. I enjoyed sitting down and talking with him, his family, and his relatives. He is an amazing individual and I was honored to have met him.

Wednesday night I traveled to Cameron Pond to meet with the neighborhood about their buffer being cleared. It is very disturbing to see 100′ of buffer turned into a field of wood chips. The buffer was supposed to protect them from I-540. Instead they now have high voltage lines within 100′ of their homes and a clear view and sound of traffic on I-540.

Thursday I had meetings scheduled with the town attorney and the Police Benevolent Association. These were both cancelled so I spent the time doing work from SAS and eating dinner with my family which was an unexpected treat.

Saturday I participated in the opening of the Walnut Street Park. This is Cary’s 22^nd park but is special because it is built in the center of town in a well established area rather than on the periphery of town. Since 1998 Cary has spent over $30 million dollars on acquiring open space and park land. We now maintain over 2200 acres of open space, greenways, and park land. Citizens always rank open space, greenways, and park land as a significant Quality of Life component in every survey we have given over the last several years. Over the last 11 years councils have shown that they are committed to open space, greenways, and parks with consistent funding.

Emails and Interoffice mail this week provided some interesting information. For example, funds collected from our safe light program and civil penalties will provide over $142,000 to the Wake County Public School system.

Another interesting bit of information comes from our newly approved budget. Although we were 60% lower on Capital Improvement projects we did approve over $16 million in Water Capital Improvements and over $25 million in Sewer Capital Improvements. Of course these are projects that are necessary of we are to maintain the level of service we provide today.

Emails this week included complaints about a winery not being able to participate in Lazy Daze, a request to declare war on the recession through business initiatives, a compliment to our building inspector department (way to go guys!), a complaint about trees being cut down on Cary Town Boulevard, and of course emails about the Cary man who painted a message on his home.

On the subject of the message on the side of the gentleman’s house, I would ask that you please read council member Don Frantz’s post on this subject which has a LOT of great information. You might decide that Cary is not the bad guy after all. Please see the post titled the Red Letter House. Great job Don!

Well that is about it for this week. I plan to post on Sunday, August 16^th. Please feel free to leave a comment on my post.