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.