Harold’s Blog: Cary Matters
Cary, NC – Unlike last week this was a very slow week and consisted mostly of private meetings.
A Quiet Week
Monday was my wife’s birthday so I spent time with her.
Tuesday I met with the town manager, assistant town manager, and assistant to the town manager to go over several issues. We talked briefly about the new downtown manager; costs related to downtown development, other issues related to downtown, and an economic development issue.
Cary Matters
Wednesday I taped the September episode of Cary Matters with Lori Bush. Our main topic was about changes on Walnut Street. The second segment was spent addressing questions about the Maynard Water Tank across from Cary High School. We did all three segments on the first take and were finished within half an hour.
It might be of interest to know that Cary Matters is written by the host of the show. I wrote it for the first two to three years and have been sharing writing duties with council member Robinson since. But council members are not allowed to participate in Cary Matters while running for office so I am currently writing all the shows.
The process begins with an initial draft which is due to the Public Information Office by the 15th of the month for fact checking. During the time of fact checking the co-host is invited to make any changes. The final draft is sent out about a week in advance of the taping. The taping usually occurs the last Wednesday of the month.
Do More with Technology
Wednesday night I had a private meeting with folks interested in getting the town to do more with technology. That meeting lasted a couple of hours.
The rest of my week and weekend were spent in private meetings.
New Downtown Manager
Council and the public were notified on Thursday that our new downtown manager will be Ted Boyd. Boyd was selected from a pool of 225 applicants from as far away as Washington, Florida and New Hampshire. Boyd and his family will relocate from Charlotte, where he is currently the Director of Historic South End at Charlotte Center City Partners.
His first day with the Town of Cary will be September 30, 2013.
Emails from Staff
Emails from staff this week included a response to address a citizen’s concern about the closing of the Cary Employment Security Commission office. Staff explained that some offices are seeing changes as part of the Department of Commerce reorganization, Cary is not one of them. They intend to continue providing services that include keeping the office open the same hours it has always been open. The state official did acknowledge that they had lost some employees. Due to budget constraints, they did not renew the contracts of several temporary employees. There are currently 4 regular staff members plus the manager working at the Cary office. In addition, they are recruiting for a temporary position which would last through June 30, 2014.
An email was also received from the Homebuilders about permits in July. They showed Cary with 124 residential permits with Raleigh only having 50. Cary also had 148 remodeling permits with Raleigh having 145. Cary has had 701 permits since the beginning of the year which is a 32% increase from last year at this time. All the municipalities in Wake County combined have had a 38% increase from last year at this time.
Emails from Citizens
Emails from citizens this week included a concern about the location of Wake County’s H7 High School, a concern about fracking in Cary, a concern about safety in the Ardmore community, and invitations to several events.
This Week
This week will be busier than this week but still not that busy. Highlights include a work session on Imagine Cary on Tuesday and the Chamber of Commerce banquet on Wednesday night.
At Tuesday’s work session the staff will present a preliminary report of the draft Value Statements and Vision Statement to be discussed in the work session. The report’s introduction provides a description of the process used to generate the statements, defines key terms, and describes the organization of the material.
Get in Touch
Well that is all for this week. My next post will be on Sunday September 8th. Although I have Facebook and Twitter accounts those are not the best means of communications with me. Please send all Town of Cary questions or comments to Harold.Weinbrecht@townofcary.org and email personal comments to augustanat@mindspring.com.
Thanks for the update,this is the first time I have come across it. I think you are doing a great job! I have lived in cary for 18years and still feel that when Cary foot asks for taxes or bonds I see the results. I am hoping the new movie theatre will get cary downtown to a nightlife like apex does.
I live very near the Ardmore community (Reedy Creek at Maynard). We have our fair share of opportunistic vandalism, but I’ve never felt unsafe. All one needs to do is look at available crime maps to see that it’s not a dangerous area.