Story and photos by Brent Miller for CaryCitizen.
January 13, 2012 Wilmington, NC – The annual Cary Town Council/Staff retreat, where Cary’s elected officials and senior staff discuss vision, strategy and hot topics in an informal setting, began on Friday at the Hilton Riverside hotel in Wilmington, NC. Read more
Editor’s Note: Cary Town Council Member Don Frantz has been keeping a blog since 2008. It is with great pleasure that we announce that Don has given us permission to republish his posts and see how it goes.
Don Frantz is a great blogger – you can really hear his voice in what he writes. He’s very informed on the issues, but keeps it simple. He follows an informal publishing schedule – when he’s got something to say, he writes a post.
Don speaks his mind, even if it puts him in the opposition on some issues. But he does it in a way that’s principled and without intentionally ruffling anyone’s feathers. That’s why we respect his blog and asked him to let us republish it here.
This post is from late December. But it gives some good insight into the intellectual conversation happening right now in Town Council.
—————————————————————————————–
Cary, NC, December 18, 2011 – With the holidays, the last couple of weeks have been relatively light in regards to council responsibilities while heavy on the fun and festivities! The only downside is that with so many holiday events, you just can’t make them all. Highlights for me were the Heart of Cary Association’s Ole Time Winter Festival, the town’s Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony and the Cary Jaycees Christmas Parade. Congratulations and Thank You to all the volunteers and town employees who worked so hard to make all of these events a huge success! And thanks to the man upstairs for the great weather!
And while we’ve had a lot of fun, we did have some work to do.
Notable items from our December council meeting included the swearing in ceremonies for newly elected council members, a number of public hearings and annexations, specific council initiated requests and ordinance amendments pertaining to telecommunications towers.
The meeting began with the swearing in ceremonies for Mayor Weinbrecht and Council Members Adcock, Bush and I. After we were sworn into office, the first order of business was to elect a Mayor Pro-Tem. Congratulations to Cary’s new Mayor Pro-Tem Gale Adcock! I am confident she will be a great ambassador and represent Cary’s interests well.
Following the election of Mayor Pro-Tem, Mayor Weinbrecht announced the new committee assignments for council members. The list is long and boring so I will let the Mayor post it on his blog. ;-) I will say that I (finally) get to Chair the Planning and Development Committee and I remain the liaison for the Parks, Recreation and Cultural Resources (PRCR) advisory board and the Town Center Review Commission (TCRC).
Notable public hearings included:
• C-Tran fare increases and changes. Changes include the elimination of free transfers – this is consistent with both CAT and DATA, modifying the current bus pass structure, and allows for seniors and children to now ride fixed route for free, but remember, ID is required (just not to vote). You can view a complete list of changeshere. The council unanimously approved the amendments.
• Land Development Ordinance Amendments regarding telecommunications towers (cell towers). Proposed amendments provide incentives to telecommunications providers to utilize stealth technology – hopefully resulting in fewer ugly cell towers throughout Cary. The incentive is basically an administrative review and approval process vs. the current costly, time consuming council approval process. If a proposed cell tower is NOT of stealth design, it must still come through the council…and considering previous council decisions…well…good luck with that. The proposed amendments now go to our Planning and Zoning Board for review.
• Site Plan for the old Austin Foods site in Downtown (at the E. Durham Road/E. Chatham Street Intersection) Basically the applicant wants to take an old, ugly, environmentally contaminated site and make improvements that will not only allow for re-use of the existing structures and improve aesthetics downtown, but also better protects our environment and reduce stormwater runoff. The council unanimously approved the request.
Council initiated requests included:
• A request from Councilmember Adcock and Mayor Weinbrecht to direct staff to investigate and report back to council the pros and cons of amending our ordinances to restrict or eliminate the tethering of dogs in Cary. This request passed unanimously.
• A request from Mayor Weinbrecht and I to direct staff to investigate the pros and cons of implementing a trap, neuter and release (TNR) program in Cary to reduce the number of feral cats in Cary. This request also passed unanimously.
• A request from Council member Bush and Mayor Weinbrecht to direct staff to investigate suggested actions the town may take in regards to hydraulic fracturing (AKA fracking) in town limits or Cary’s extra territorial jurisdiction (ETJ). This request passed 5-2. Both I and Councilman Smith voted “no”.
I opposed the request because:
From the discussion at our meeting it is obvious that no one has a clear understanding of what fracking really is, or what the impacts to our community may or may not be; and given the amount of media sensationalism and special interest spin on both sides of this topic, I don’t know that we could ever get the truth.
But the reality is that even if state law is changed to allow fracking, it’s probably not going to occur in Cary (zoning, property values etc..), so trying to ban it really doesn’t do anything to address any concerns we might have. If anything we should be more concerned with what might occur in neighboring jurisdictions – especially those near Jordan Lake – our water source.
If the state legislature is going to allow fracking in NC, then it makes more sense that we work with our law makers to ensure that whatever legislation is passed provides for the highest environmental protections, best management practices and transparency as possible so that regardless of where any drilling/fracking occurs, all of NC is protected.
We cannot ignore the potential economic impact of drilling in North Carolina, nor can we ignore the potential environmental impacts. Fracking has worked well for many communities across America while others have concerns. Let’s learn from the success and failure of others and see if we can find something that works for us.
Following our council meeting we held a closed session to discuss a number of legal matters, none of which I can tell you about. Confidential, sorry.
Our December Planning and Development Committee meeting lasted a whopping three minutes. We had only one agenda item for discussion that was a no-brainer. I also met with Town Manager, Ben Shivar to discuss a few items.
That’s about it for this post. I hope all of you have a very Merry Christmas and Happy Holiday Season and have a Happy and Safe New Year!
———————————————————————————–
Photo of Town Hall by Hal Goodtree.
Story and photos by Brent Miller
January 14, 2011 CARY, NC – Embassy Suites in Cary was the host for he two-day Cary Town Council/Staff retreat, an annual meeting that enables Cary’s elected officials and senior staff to discuss vision, strategy and hot topics in an informal setting. Read more
Story and photos by Hal Goodtree.
Raleigh, NC – A small group of journalists from across the state gathered at the Executive Mansion in Raleigh on Thursday to spend an hour chatting with North Carolina Governor Beverly Perdue. CaryCitizen was there.
The State Budget
Many questions revolved around the coming budget for North Carolina. The State faces a $3 billion shortfall.
Responding to improved economic indicators, Gov. Perdue said she thinks that 2011 will be better than 2010, and that the most recent numbers seem to confirm that “recovery is coming along more quickly than anyone hoped.”
The Governor told the assembled journalists that she had worked the $3 billion gap down to about $900 million in her draft budget.
Preserving “The Core”
Several times, Governor Perdue referred to “preserving the core” functions of government as her yardstick in measuring competing budgetary demands. She said she intended to “protect” K-3 education. “You give them good core skills and they’re on their way,” the Governor said.
Liquor Stores
As the conversation shifted between subjects, education, privitization and the budget became intertwined with state liquor sales. Perdue said she did not see state run liquor stores (ABC stores) as a “core service” of government. In fact, she said, North Carolina is one of the few states that have ABC stores.
The Governor said she was looking forward to getting an evaluation back after the New Year on ABC privatization.
Federal Stimulus Money For High Speed Rail
The railroad has always played an important role in Cary. It runs through the center of our town.
I asked the Governor about news that two Governors-elect (John Kasich of Ohio and Scott Walker of Wisconsin) have announced they will not take federal stimulus money for high-speed rail because it imposes too big a financial obligation on the states. North Carolina is one of twelve states to accept federal funds for HSR.
“It might be political rhetoric,” she said. She pointed out that Governor Mark Sanford of South Carolina had sworn off federal recovery money but the state had ending up receiving funding.
Governor Perdue confirmed support for investment in rail across the state. She also cautioned about the alternative: Thursday morning, she had spoken to a company interested in locating to North Carolina, but concerned about our lack of public transportation infrastructure.
New Hill
Water is another key issue or Cary. I asked Governor Perdue if she saw an opportunity for Executive leadership to break the logjam between residents, towns, landowners, legislators and activists on the New Hill Water Treatment plant.
She said she asked the Secretary (Dee Freeman, Department of Environmental and Natural Resources) to broker a compromise. The Governor said she tries not to micromanage local issues, but “if there comes a time when I have to get in, I will.”
Steel Magnolias
The Executive Mansion is beautiful at Christmas. I looked at the oil paintings of Governors from years gone by. I had some of the Mansion’s very fine chocolate cookies.
The Governor seemed a little weighed down buy the budget crisis, by two grinding years of tough decisions. But she said she maintained her resolve. “It’s a little like Steel Magnolias – blond hair and blue eyes and all,” Governor Perdue said. “But I can make hard decisions.”