This week was highlighted by a council meeting, a work session, a taping of Cary Matters, and the State of the Town speech to the Chamber. And of course we had some snow to deal with.

Monday started with a typical meeting on the agenda. Along with Mayor Pro-Tem Robison and myself there was the town manager, assistant town manager, town clerk, town attorney, public information office, and various directors. We went over the agenda fairly quickly since there were very few items that needed clarification of appeared to be controversial.

Monday night I met with various members associated with the PBA (Police Benevolent Association). They asked me not to speak of the contents of this meeting and I will honor that request. They did ask me to post the following:

http://ncpba.org/cary/chapter_news/stories/live_auction_items/story.htm

Dear Friends of Law Enforcement:

On behalf of the Cary Chapter of the North Carolina Police Benevolent Association I would like to take this opportunity to invite you to the fourth annual “George Almond” Officer of the Year awards banquet.

The North Carolina Police Benevolent Association is a non-profit organization dedicated to serving officers working for North Carolina public law enforcement entities. We support personnel by advocating changes to improve the quality of work life for our members along with addressing issues through political action. The Cary Chapter was formed in the fall of 2005 and has been very active in working for our membership and also in the Cary community.

The Cary Chapter board, in its first year, chose to sponsor an Officer of the Year Award in honor of retired Detective George Almond. Almond, a PBA member, was shot in the line of duty in October 2001. Almond survived the shooting and returned to duty as a Detective in juvenile investigations before retiring in August 2004. The award recognizes outstanding achievement in the areas of leadership, community service, mentoring, excellence in performance, and valor. Five finalists will be selected from a group of nominees for this year’s award. One of these individuals will be selected as the Officer of the Year for 2009. The award will be presented by Almond at the Embassy Suites in Cary on February 27, 2010. The doors to the event will open at 5:30 p.m.

We, as a chapter, would welcome your attendance at this event. Tickets are $50 per individual. We are also raising funds for the event to help defray some of the expenses. All contributors will be recognized at the ceremony in a special section of our program literature. Contributors who choose to be a Host ($250) or Sponsor ($500) will be formally recognized during the ceremony and through placards that will be placed on the dining tables. The deadline for receiving these funds is February 15, 2010. Checks should be made payable to the NCPBA. Cary Officer of the Year Banquet should be written on the memo line. Checks can be mailed to Holly Doychak - Southern States PBA, 2155 Highway 42 South, McDonough, GA 30252.

As part of our event the Police Benevolent Foundation has created as successful partnership with Cary Crime Stoppers to raise funds at the event through a live auction. The Police Benevolent Foundation is a charitable arm of the PBA which provides aid to the families of our fallen members, scholarships to well deserving youth and funding for law enforcement officers in times of natural and man-made disasters. Cary Crime Stoppers is a volunteer organization comprising local citizens dedicated to the reduction and quick resolution of crime. The Cary Crime Stoppers organization gathers funds to reward individuals who provide information anonymously to the Cary Police Department so that crimes can be solved.

For more information please contact:

Randy Byrd- Cary Chapter President
North Carolina Police Benevolent Association
1-800-233-3506 ext. 311
rbyrd@sspba.org
*contributions are not tax deductible for IRS purposes

Tuesday began with my weekly meeting with town manager Shivar. This week I met with him and the town attorney to discuss a couple of issues. And of course since the town attorney is involved I really can’t speak about those issues.

Tuesday night we held a work session on Public Art Master Plan. After the presentation the council made the following recommendations related to the plan. Staff will take this direction and come back to council with recommendations which we may or may not approve. We decided we would consider an ordinance to require Public Art with development, an update to the ten year old Public Art Master Plan, including design and engineering expertise on the Public Art Advisory Board, and the Charrette process as part of the concept development phase. After the work session the council went into closed session on two items.

Wednesday morning I gave a slightly modified version of the State of the Town to the Cary Chamber of Commerce. The main differences between this one and the official one was that it was shorter, included more current data, and included trends from our council retreat a couple of weeks ago. Surprisingly no one asked a question after I was finished which lead me to believe I had done a good job or a poor one. Howard Johnson did come up and ask the question about the Morrisville-Cary merger which I talked about last week. I enjoyed talking with our local business leaders before and after the speech. As I told them I believe we are poised to lead the region in the long slow recovery process.

Wednesday evening I taped the February version of Cary Matters with council member Adcock. The main topic was the council-staff retreat. The Q&A portion included the community tree issue and the Morrisville-Cary merger issue. Both of which were highly publicized in the media. Unfortunately, during the editing stage a day or two later the staff realized that a piece of the equipment caused the sound quality to be poor. So it looks like we will have to tape part of it again next week. This is interesting because we will have to wear the same outfits. And I guess a haircut is out of the question.

Thursday before the council meeting I met with a couple of dozen scouts from troop 152 out of Genesis United Methodist Church. I explained to these young men what they were going to see during the council meeting and then asked if they had questions. We spent about 15 to 20 minutes together before the council meeting started. Most of them stayed about an hour and some stayed until the end. We had a great discussion on a couple of topics which should have given them good insight as to how decisions are made.

Thursday night’s council meeting was mostly uneventful. The biggest discussions centered on changes for new home daycares and new rules for adult businesses. I thought the proposal on home daycare was fair since it only affected new daycares. As far as the adult businesses in Cary, I really would prefer that we didn’t have any at all. However, they are protected by the first amendment so we have to allow them. Our proposal, which will come back to us for a vote, would allow it in areas that are away from schools, churches, and neighborhoods. We should see this item again at our second meeting in February.

Friday was the beginning of the snow/sleet event for Cary. I think it got a little over 4 inches at my house. On Saturday and Sunday I went for 2 hour walks and conditions drastically improved. Kudos to Cary’s A team for getting the main thoroughfares cleared out by the end of Sunday. Traffic was almost normal by Sunday evening.

Emails this week included complaints about Cameron Pond, a request to partner in holding a school forum, a request to help with social media, a request to give opening remarks at a marathon, a complaint about trash on US1, a complaint about Cary’s School of Government selection, and complaints about art at bus stops.

One email from staff this week on the safelight cameras at intersections had some interesting information. Here is an excerpt from that email:

Our main reason for implementing the program was to decrease vehicle accidents at some of our high risk intersections, which in turn will make our residents and visitors safer.  Our most recent analysis of the intersection’s found that accidents decreased at monitored intersections from 387 to 199.  At the same time, accidents increased at the control intersections from 153 to 190.  Also, comprehensive crash costs were examined and the pre-installation crash costs equaled $10,408,000.  The post-installation calculation was $5,516,000, which is a reduction in crash costs of $5,516,000.

One big decision made this week was to spend roughly $500 million on high speed rail from Raleigh to Charlotte. We are not really sure what this means for Cary yet but know that it will include doubling the size of the existing depot. And that of course means the high speed rail will stop in Cary which is good news. The high speed rail should be able to average over 90 mph to Charlotte. It will be interesting to see this plan implemented. The Obama administration has touted this mostly as a job creator.

Next week’s schedule looks fairly light at this point. Two meetings of note are to discuss the Veterans Freedom Park and talk with participants of the School of Government.

Well that is all for this week. I plan to next post on Sunday, February 7^th. Please feel free to leave a comment on my post.

This week we broke ground on the new Cary cultural arts center. In addition, there were intergovernmental meetings that I attended.

Monday I, along with several mayors, attended a Carolina Hurricanes hockey game in the Centennial Authority sky box. It was quite a treat and a good time was had by all. I appreciate the Centennial Authority’s kindness and generosity. Unfortunately, the Canes lost. It looks like a transition year for the Canes.

Tuesday, I had a meeting with the town manager and Mayor Pro-Tem via teleconference. Our discussion included follow up to issues brought up at the retreat last week. We also discussed issues with the media. <begin soapbox> It appears some of the media wants to take any and every opportunity to attack Cary by not reporting all of the news. By doing this they make Cary come across as elitist or arrogant. I am thankful that there are good reporters out there that are covering Cary and doing a great job. By great I mean fair and interviewing all sides of the story to make sure the truth gets told. All news doesn’t have to be a sound byte or a controversy. <end soapbox>

Wednesday, I was scheduled to attend the CAMPO transportation advisory committee but asked Mayor Pro-Tem Robison to attend in my place. Unfortunately, I had to work late to make up for hours I would miss on Friday morning. Ms. Robison did a great job representing Cary and called with a full report the next day. The committee reelected Joe Bryan as chairman and directed CAMPO staff to review policy procedure. The procedure review comes from a concern that voting representatives are not getting information soon enough in the process.

Thursday I attended the Planning and Development Committee in Erv Portman’s place. There were two items on consent which didn’t warrant discussion. The one item under discussion was about C-Tran bus shelter designs to accept an art component. The entire meeting lasted four minutes which I heard was a record. The purpose of this committee and the Operations Committee is to fully vet issues and to make recommendations to the entire council for consideration. But sometimes, as in this case, there are no brainers.

Friday the Mayors of Wake County (mayors association) met with the Wake County School Board. Ten out of twelve mayors and six out of nine school board members were in attendance. We met for close to two hours. The purpose of the meeting was to provide an opportunity for both groups to meet each other and share values and visions. I was honored to be host mayor and to facilitate as the new mayors association president.

After introductions the school board members were asked to share their vision for the Wake County Public School System and how the Wake County Mayors could help. Some of the comments I noted were the following:

“We need to make population growth and school growth match county and community goals.”
“We need help to anticipate the location of schools and funding.”
“We need to find a way to work together to improve the health of children.”
“We need to honor our teachers. Consider ideas like community gift cards.”
“We need help to get school information to the citizens.”
“School board members need to visit and tour all the towns.”
“Towns need to pressure developers to contribute land.”
“Mayors need to get involved in the placement of schools.”
“Communities should partner with schools in the purchase of land.”

The mayors were then asked about their goals for their specific municipalities and how they can work with the Wake County Board of Education to serve the citizens. The following are some of the comments I noted:

“Have municipal planning staffs look at reassignments.”
“Work with municipalities on after school and mentoring programs.”
“Each municipality should have a high school named after the town.”
“Let the municipalities help in the placement of schools.”
“School system needs to provide more vocational training.”
“School resources should be shared with the communities. Rents are too high.”
“Schools need to help prepare citizens by providing information about what’s coming.”
“School system needs to work with municipalities on safety issues.”
“School programs should be adjusting focus to keep the best and brightest.”
“There is not equity in school programming.”
“School system needs to set a vision and tell municipalities so that the municipalities can help.”
“Magnet schools are important to municipalities.”
“Every school should have school resource officers.”
“School system should listen to the kids. Create a task force of kids.”
“School system needs to work with municipalities on communication”
“All mayors want to help with schools. A successful municipality needs good schools.”

Saturday afternoon I joined council members Frantz and Smith for the groundbreaking of the new Cary Cultural Arts center at the old Cary Elementary building. This event was well attended with around a couple hundred people. I was honored to be asked to pose for a picture with the Cary High School class of 1952 on the front steps. Then alumni from Cary High School played the fight song. There are some great memories in the old building and I am glad it is finally being restored.

This site is one of Cary’s most historic sites. Frank Page, Cary’s founder, built the original Cary Academy on this site around 1867. One of the first public high schools in North Carolina was built on this site in 1907 and was attended by students from all over North Carolina. The current building was dedicated in 1938 and has been in disrepair for several years. Cary bought the building back from the school board in 2002. The council allocated cash to renovate the building last fall. Using cash allowed us to proceed without increasing debt. By entering into a contract during this economic climate we saved around $4 million on original estimates. The new cultural arts center should be open by summer of 2011.

Emails this week included a request from Cary finalists in the Doritos Super Bowl contest, a complaint about speeding in Jamison Park, a complaint about the lack of action in Waverly Place, and a complaint about pet owners on Black Creek greenway.

Next week includes a taping of Cary Matters, a council meeting, and the annual State of the Town at the Chamber’s Eye Opening breakfast. It will be a busy week for me and hopefully a good one.

Well that is all for this week. I plan to next post on Sunday, January 31^st. Please feel free to leave a comment on my post.

This week was marked mostly by the earthquake tragedy in Haiti. My week included a ribbon cutting with the governor, a council meeting, and the annual council staff retreat which focused on a 20 to 30 year vision of the future.

The week began with the tragic news of a major earthquake in Haiti which will end up killing thousands. It is very sad that the people of one of the poorest nations in the world will now have to endure more impossible hardships. If you are reading this post please thank God for your blessings and say a prayer for the Haitian people. And if you can find it in your heart please donate to the many relief efforts.

My week began on Tuesday with a ceremony at the McDonalds on Kildaire Farm Road celebrating their Gold LEED certification. LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Development. This new McDonalds replaced a McDonalds that was a quarter of a century old. In the dismantling of the old building they were able to recycle over 99% of the material. In the new building they are very energy efficient with the lights using about 90% less energy than they did before. This McDonalds, and its owner Ric Richards, took the risk of a long payback (cost at least an extra million or two to build this way) to be environmentally friendly. They are one of the first businesses in Cary to step forward and show leadership in protecting our environment and helping Cary to become greener.

The Gold LEED certification was so important that the governor came to speak. In addition, she was joined by NC Senator Stevens, NC Representatives Dollar and Weiss. The actually presentation of the certification was done by a representative from Washington DC. I was proud to be in attendance and hope that this is the beginning of many Cary businesses taking a leadership role in helping Cary become greener. On a side note, Ric Richards presented me with a vintage collector’s glass from the 1970s of Mayor McCheese. A new name to go along with “your honor” and “your worship” that I have been called in front of the media.

Tuesday evening I met with directors and other staff to go over the agenda for Thursday’s council meeting. We didn’t identify any major concerns and believed it would be a relatively short meeting.

After the agenda meeting I met with town manager Shivar to go over several issues. One of the issues was social media. As we become a more open government, social media will become a bigger issue for the town and require more resources. Now is the time to review and revise our strategy to handle the new methods of communication.

Wednesday’s first meeting was with Wake County School Board member Debra Goldman. We talked about the first two school board meetings and how she felt about things. She is disappointed with the way things have been added to the agenda at the last minute. She expressed to me that she had asked the new school board members to provide information before the meetings. Unfortunately, they haven’t followed her advice. Debra is a very smart lady and I believe she is in a key position to help lead this school board. I believe to be successful; the school board will have to find a way to work together. So far, it has been an us versus them mentality. I know from experience, that when you ignore the opinion and experience of the minority everyone loses. I hope the school board finds a way to work together because with their great minds they have great potential. I am anxious to see if Debra will be the one to make a difference.

Wednesday night I met with two people on the town’s technology. Their belief is that the town is falling behind. They believe we need to be in a more leadership role. Examples would be in the social media area. I plan to bring this up at the retreat discussion on technology on Friday.

Thursday evening I met with attorneys and key staff. Of course I am not at liberty to discuss the topic or what was said in the meeting. Sorry about that.

Thursday night’s council meeting focused on two main issues: the Cary Parkway and High House intersection and the Community Tree issue. The council decided to not proceed with the single quadrant proposal for the Cary Parkway and High House intersection. We also did not choose one of the other two staff options. Instead we asked the staff to meet with the public and get their ideas about the intersection. My feel is that this intersection will become abysmal once Park West and the Davis Drive and High House intersections have developed. We will need a plan before that time arrives. Otherwise people will be screaming at us for not planning. Unfortunately, I don’t see a lot of options except for the traditional widening which will only provide marginal benefits.

The Community Tree vote was quick and simple. Council member Frantz made a statement and a motion to rename the trees to Christmas trees. Council member Smith provided the second. Council member Adcock called the question which passed 6 to 1. Then we voted to approve the change 6 to 1. In my opinion, this fiasco was a media generated controversy. The “tree lighting ceremony” has always been called that since it was created in the 80s. The “community tree” was added in 2006 to invite members of the community to put ornaments on the tree. This council had absolutely nothing to do with either. The proposal which passed Thursday night was to rename these trees to have Christmas in them. But the media took that simple change and made a national story out of it by half truths and misinformation. I believe this caused the town of Cary’s reputation harm. I am extremely disappointed in what seems to be another example of some media outlets taking the opportunity to bash Cary. Shame!

Friday and Saturday was the annual council staff retreat. This year’s theme was vision. The first day was a high level vision for the entire town. The second day focused more on downtown. The process was to go through each department and have them present the current and future trends and then have the council discuss.

The following are a few of the noteworthy points from the first day of the retreat:

• Cary’s population is expected to be at 185,000 in 25 years. This is only a 35% increase in growth which means a significantly slower rate.
• Cary is roughly 79 square miles. There are roughly 45,000 single family homes in Cary. 50% are located in PUDs (Planned Unit Developments).
• There is 11,500 acres of infill in Cary yet to be developed
• The projects in the pipeline would add an additional 24,726 citizens.
• Only 8,000 acres in Cary have not been spoken for which would generate about 35,000 people if developed.
• Our stormwater requirements exceed FEMA.
• Cary has illegal discharge detection and can actually identify very small amounts of contaminants. It can also detect human care products.
• Cary is often asked to speak on utilities since we are leaders in the state.
• Cary’s parks and recreation has over 13,000 hours of programs. In 2009 Cary’s programs had over 90,000 program participants.
• Cary’s Comprehensive transportation plan is 35 miles from completion. That equates to about $800 million in road improvements.
• Cary has 413 miles of sidewalks which is less than half of the buildout of 900 miles. To reach buildout would require $80 million in sidewalk improvements.
• Cary currently has 7 fire stations and over 200 fire fighters. It will eventually have 11 fire stations and over 300 fire fighters.
• Cary’s fire fighters have to become more and more trained at a lower scope. That is, they will be expected to perform more CPR activities (defibrillators) and other medical tasks that at one time were only done by doctors.
• Cary is the safest town in NC and the safest in the US for a town our size.
• Cary’s #1 crime was larceny. Cary’s #1 complaint was traffic.
• Ten years ago only 10% of the crimes committed in Cary were done by people that actually lived in Cary. Today 58% of the crimes committed are done by Cary residents.

It should be noted that on the first day of discussion Council members Portman and Robinson suggested that we invite Morrisville to discuss the possibility of a future merger. I think it is important to understand the context of the discussion. The discussion was on 30 years from now in a retreat setting. Retreats are informal and everyone is expected to speak freely without much deep thought into comments. I am sure my colleagues meant no disrespect to the Town of Morrisville. Morrisville and Cary have a great partnership and we work on many things together. I am proud of our relationship and look forward to continuing to work together. I believe any talks of merger would have to be initiated by Morrisville not Cary.

Here are a few key points from the second day of the retreat focusing on downtown.

• Council and staff are in agreement that the future performing arts center should be further north. The preferred site at this time is next to the parking deck at town hall.
• Council is in agreement that the new library should be next to the town plaza that is next to Cary Elementary (soon to be the cultural arts center).
• Council also agreed that the downtown focus for development should be on Chatham and on Walker Streets. Council wants to keep Academy as historic.
• Council is concerned about what NCDOT rail may do with rail crossings. This may require a depressed rail corridor through Cary. (If that happens we can call it Cary’s Big Dig.)

I received all kinds of emails this week. They included a complaint about racial profiling, a request to pursue a merger with Morrisville, thanks for approving “Christmas” in our trees, complaints about the Cary Parkway and High House single quadrant proposal, complaints about Cameron Pond, complaints about US1 & 64, and a complaint about the cost of C-Tran.

Next week will be full on intergovernmental meetings. I will be attending a Mayor’s Association outing on Monday, a Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization meeting on Wednesday, a Planning and Development meeting on Thursday, a meeting of the School board and the mayors on Friday, and a groundbreaking ceremony on Saturday.

Well that is all for this week. I plan to next post on Sunday, January 24^th. Please feel free to leave a comment on my post.

This first full week of the New Year was a light one. It was a chance for me to have one last break before we get into a busy stretch.

Monday I met with the new Cary News reporter Sadia Latifi. This was more of an introductory meeting. I spent a lot of time talking about political actions and events of the last dozen years or so. We also spoke about particular issues and the need for the Cary News to report accurately and to use all council members in their articles rather than just a couple over and over. I enjoyed meeting with Sadia and look forward to working with her.

Tuesday I met with Steve Rao from Morrisville who is interested in running for political office. We talked about strategies to make that happen and what it would take for him to win.

Thursday evening I attended the ribbon cutting for the new Four Points by Sheraton hotel in Crossroads. This is a very nice hotel in a prime spot. I predict they will thrive and prosper in this location. I wish them the best of luck. While I was there I talked with several businesses owners and several people interested in starting a business. The overall belief is that it is still difficult to get a bank loan to start a business. It has been that way for several months now and I’m not sure when that will change.

Emails this week were dominated by the clearing of trees for I540 next to Cameron Pond. Additional emails included complaints about the proposal for a single quadrant intersection at High House and Cary Parkway, more complaints about Christmas trees, a complaint about speeding in Jamison Park, and a complaint on the way I run council meetings.

This week I spent time working on the agenda for the breakfast meeting between the mayors of Wake County and the Wake County School Board. I hope to have that finalized soon and made public. We will be meeting on Friday, January 22^nd at the Herb Young Community Center starting at 8 AM. As far as I know 10 of the 12 mayors will be in attendance. So far only 4 school board members have sent a RSVP.

Information received by council this week had some interesting tidbits. Red light cameras in 2009 produced 22,091 citations with is a little over a 7% increase from 2008.

The population of Cary as of January 1^st, 2010 is 139,100 as estimated by staff.

The first major concert for the amphitheater was announced. Cheap Trick and others in the Rock n Roll hall of fame benefit lineup will play on Saturday, May 1^st. I think that will be a fantastic concert and I look forward to attending.

Next week on the calendar has the governor and me at the Gold LEED certification of McDonalds on Kildaire Farm Road. I will also be meeting with some school board members (some in person and some on the phone). There will be a regularly schedule council meeting on Thursday which promises to be lengthy. Friday and Saturday will be the annual council staff retreat.

Well that is all for this week. I plan to next post on Sunday, January 17^th. Please feel free to leave a comment on my post.

Although this week was supposed to be a holiday week of no work and few mayoral duties, I ended up working in both areas most of the week.

Monday, in addition to working at SAS I met with the town clerk for our semi-annual review. In this meeting we reviewed all things that the town clerk staff does for me and council. We talked about ways to be more efficient. I have to say this meeting took some preparation since the town clerk staff at the Town of Cary is probably the best in the state. Some of the new things we talked about were my new duties as President of the Mayors Association and how the town clerk staff can help.

Monday night I did the taping for the State of the Town Address. The script turned out to be about 2000 words which equates to about 15 minutes (actually just under 14). We broke the taping into three parts. We took at least two takes of each part except for the last part which was me walking. They did several takes of that. I have watched the taping and it came out fairly well. The major critique I have is that, even though the State of the Town has a lot of good information, it is too long. BTW, the Cary News version is 800 words. I would love to know if people think the long version was better or simply too much information. To view the long script click here. The short version should be in Wednesday’s Cary News.

Tuesday, after another day at work, I met with the town manager to catch up on things. We talked about several issues. One of the most important items was finalizing topics for the staff council retreat which is about two weeks away.

Tuesday night I attended the Eagle Scout ceremony for Rex Alexander. This was a very nice ceremony. Rex had received the rank earlier before attending college this fall at Ohio State. I was very glad to read the proclamation and challenged him to be a leader in whatever community he decided to live in.

Wednesday was my last day of work at SAS for the year. I spent the evening creating slides for a live presentation of the State of the Town which I was giving on Saturday.

Thursday morning I traveled out to Cameron Pond along with council member Portman and staff member Barker to look at the current situation. The turnpike construction has started next to the cleared area for the power lines. The Turnpike officials had told me they wouldn’t be in this area until spring. Information provided to me said they decided to start here because the ground was dryer. The residents were concerned about their increased loss of buffer. In addition, they expressed concern about plantings installed by the developer as part of an agreement to replenish some of the buffer lost with the installation of the power lines. Another concern was the planned temporary clearing of plantings at the entrance for drainage needed by those doing the bridge construction. Needless to say, there are a lot of things going on in and around Cameron Pond. The town will continue to work on the residents’ behalf. Our immediate goal is to get the turnpike authority to change design to allow a sound wall. We have a window of less than two months to change that design. We are waiting on the estimate for the design costs before meeting with the turnpike officials again. Hopefully, this will be done in the next few days.

Thursday night my family and I headed to downtown Raleigh for the First Night Celebration. We were fortunate enough to be a part of the people’s procession. Joining us were Secretary of State Marshall, Representatives Ross and Gill, Mayors Williams and Byrne, and Raleigh council member Stevenson. It was a great procession which was followed by a reception in the Bank of America building. From that vantage point we could watch the ice skating rink, the entertainment, and of course the acorn drop at 7 PM. The skies opened up with rain shortly after the acorn drop and my family and I decided to head home to bring in the New Year.

Friday I interviewed with Chris Copperwaith of NBC17 on the state of the town address that was released to the media. The main message was that Cary has weathered the worst of the recession and is in good position to lead the region into recovery.

Saturday morning I gave my first live presentation of the State of the Town address to Glenaire. My presentation was attended by a few dozen folks. After the presentation I answered several questions which included light hearted topics of the Community Tree issue and why I lost a tennis match to a girl earlier this year. I enjoyed the talk and the questions and had a great lunch with my host Walter Newman.

Well that is all for this week. I plan to next post on Sunday, January 10^th. Please feel free to leave a comment on my post.