newsobserver.com blogs -- wakewatch

SBI lab is leaderless again

josephneff — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 12:41:49 -0400

The SBI crime lab remains leaderless.

Gerald Arnold, former chief judge of the N.C. Court of Appeals, said today that other commitments have caused him to decline the job as interim director of the troubled crime lab.

“The time frame for me was not right, I wish it had been,” Arnold said. “It just didn’t work out.”

On September 8, Attorney General Roy Cooper announced that Arnold would act as interim lab director while a national search for a permanent director was underway. Cooper said Arnold would make sure that the lab would provide test results that are accurate and properly reported.

“It is critical that Judge Arnold take a good thorough look,” Cooper said that day. “If problems are found, they will be fixed.”

The crime lab has come under widespread criticism and scrutiny that threatens pending cases as well as concluded cases. A recent audit found that SBI lab analysts withheld or misreported the results of blood tests in at least 229 cases.

That audit, by two retired FBI supervisors, focused on evidence withheld from prosecutors and defense attorneys.

Arnold said he did not have a difference of opinion with SBI leadership about how to do the job.

“It wasn’t’ that they said I couldn’t do this, I couldn’t do that,” he said. “I think I would have done whatever I wanted to do."

(updated below)

Cooper is "frustrated with this unfortunate development," according to an email from Noelle Talley, Cooper's spokeswoman. Cooper believes he's found an excellent replacement for Arnold to conduct an independent legal review, the email said, but did not specify whom the replacement would be.

Mini-flags to the rescue

SDOvaska1 — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 09:55:57 -0400

The Stars and Stripes, though miniature, will still be out at today's Tax Day tea party demonstration on the state Capitol grounds in downtown Raleigh.

The Wake Republican Party and the North Carolina chapter of the conservative group Americans for Prosperity plan on handing 5,000 of the miniature U.S. flags at the rally planned for 5 p.m. on the State Capitol grounds in downtown Raleigh.

That's in response to new rules adopted by the state capital police and N.C. Department of Administration banning any flag poles or signs braced with sticks for fear the poles and posts could turn into weapons.

The miniature flags meet the permit rules.

If protesters and tea party attendees were to show up with large flag poles, the state capital police could invalidate the permit and shut the protest down.

Raleigh council takes another stab at public safety building

SDOvaska1 — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 10:34:42 -0400

Four city councilors will meet tomorrow to talk about how to resolve their differences with the Clarence E. Lightner Public Safety Center, a proposed tower to house Raleigh's emergency response departments that was shelved because of concerns about the project's cost.

The meeting will put down the ground work for bringing in professional architects and public safety experts as consultants to help the council work through their split over the issue. Attending will be Mayor Charles Meeker and council members Mary-Ann Baldwin, Russ Stephenson and Bonner Gaylord.

There's been no public discussion about what those consultants would cost city taxpayers.
The $205 million Lightner project has been in the planning stages for years, but attracted scrutiny this winter and spring as more information came out about a proposed tax increase to pay for it.

Other concerns have since popped up with the building design itself, a 17-story building based in downtown Raleigh that would house the city's police, fire, emergency communications and information technology departments.

The city has already spend $23 million on the project, including design costs and the renovation and relocation of police to an interim headquarters in North Raleigh.

Want to go? Tuesday's meeting is open to the public at will be held at 11 a.m. in room 305 of the city municipal building, 222 W. Hargett St.

Google gets lots of bids for fast Internet

AlanMWolf — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 15:06:15 -0400

Google isn't ready to reveal which community it will wire with super-fast Internet access, but it did release a map showing where it got submissions before the March 26 deadline.

See the map and full report over on our WakeWatch blog.

Cary, Chapel Hill, Carrboro, Durham, Greensboro and Raleigh all asked Google for consideration.

The new Internet would send data at speeds of one gigabit per second, more than 100 times faster than most residential services.

Waiting for Google

SDOvaska1 — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 14:33:42 -0400

Google is keeping pretty mum about where it'll choose to put down fiber-optic cables as part of an experiment to wire up an entire community with really, really fast Internet access.

But it did offer a glimpse here of where they got submissions before the March 26 cut-off date. The small circles show where governments applied, while the larger circles are spots where more than 1,000 individuals contacted Google on their own.

So just how fast would this Internet be? Data could get sent at speeds
of one gigabit per second, more than 100 times faster than most
residential services.

Cary, Chapel Hill, Carrboro, Durham, Greensboro and Raleigh all asked Google for consideration. Durham probably took the cake locally for gathering the most community input, with an aggressive online campaign led by interested citizenry as well as offering a photo snapped from above the Durham Bulls Athletic Park with people on the field using their bodies to spell out "We Want Google."

Raleigh, oddly enough, probably ended up with the most extreme offer to come out locally when councilman Bonner Gaylord anted up at the last-minute and said he'd name his unborn twins after Google's co-founders if Google chooses the Oak City.

Google promises to make its decision by the end of the year.

City, county clash over text change

RayMartin — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 16:27:11 -0400

UPDATE: Read Silver's entire presentation here, and Tuesday's story here.

At a Wake Commissioners committee meeting today, Raleigh Mayor Charles Meeker and Planning Director Mitchell Silver argued against a county ordinance change that would allow commercial development in the Falls Lake watershed and several other county watersheds.

Meeker argued his case from a policy standpoint, while Silver said the change is inconsistent with the intent of "nonconforming" land uses and is being proposed in the wrong section of the county code. Silver listed several typical options for nonconforming uses, and redevelopment wasn't one of them. He said the move would open "Pandora's Box" to other arbitrary changes in the future. For background on the ordinance, go here.

The text change would essentially allow commercial development for parcels of land that have been "grandfathered" for such use. Those include a lumberyard and cement plant in the Falls watershed, and several bare parcels in other county watersheds. Meeker and other city officials warn the move could further pollute already impaired Falls Lake, which the city is trying to clean to avoid millions in future costs. They say the text change would undermine Raleigh's efforts to reduce urbanization in Durham
that's harmful to the water quality, and potentially obstruct cleanup
efforts.

The lake is the source of water for more than 65 percent of Wake County citizens, Meeker said this morning, including all of Raleigh and several other towns. It is polluted primarily because of urbanization in Durham, Granville and Person counties.

Commissioners and county staff took issue with Meeker and Silver's arguments. Commissioner Stan Norwalk challenged Meeker's claim that the text change would send the wrong message to Durham.

"What's to prevent us from sending the message that we're actually tightening the standards?," Norwalk said. "You're worried about sending a message, but why?"

Meeker responded: "That's sending a mixed message. We want to send a clear one."

County Attorney Scott Warren said some of the issues Silver raised "will have to be sorted out." And others took issue with his interpretation of the county code.

Commissioner Paul Coble, former Raleigh mayor, blasted the city afterward for presenting their concerns at the 11th hour. And Board Chairman Tony Gurley said during the meeting that "this is stuff that should have been handled long before it reached our board. If we could get all of this rebuttal back and forth done ahead of time, I would greatly appreciate it."

Commissioner Betty Lou Ward, who chairs the committee and lives in the watershed, said it was an example of why they need a countywide planning operation.

Taking sides in the Lightner building debate

SDOvaska1 — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 12:46:23 -0500

One of the only things that's clear about the Clarence E. Lightner Public Safety Center is that there has been no shortage of spin on the project coming from all sides.

The proposed $205 million project, a 17-story glass tower that seemed destined for easy council approval until concerns were raised in December about an accompanying 8 percent tax increase that would pay for the 300,000-square foot building and $250 million in public work projects.

The debate of the Clarence E. Lightner Public Safety Center was at its
most heated during Tuesday's council meeting, where the eight-member
council deadlocked over what to do.

In favor are Mayor Charles Meeker and council member James West, Nancy McFarlane and Mary-Ann Baldwin. Voicing opposition are Bonner Gaylord, Thomas Crowder, Russ Stephenson and John Odom.

The most outspoken council members have been Meeker, who warns that bypassing or delaying the project could mean giving up $50 million in savings, and Gaylord, a new council member who has suggested scrapping the plan and looking at using space the city already has or building facilities with smaller price tags.

For those interested, here's a fuller explanation both Meeker and Gaylord gave about how they feel about the project.

Meeker put forth his case, and a compromise to lessen the proposed tax increase, at his State of the City address Monday in front of a members of the city's Rotary Club. The mayor, who said he winged the speech from notes he wrote, didn't have his comments available in text form, but can be watched here.

Gaylord gave a speech at Tuesday's council meeting explaining why he and two other council members don't like the plan.

Read what Gaylord prepared for his speech here.

Parking issues on deck for Raleigh council

SDOvaska1 — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 11:56:42 -0500

Raleigh's City Council has been occupied with the debate of whether or not to build a $205 project for a new public safety center but have plenty of other issues on their plate today

Parking, a hot-button issue is just about any community, is on the front burner. Two controversial issues, front-yard parking and ticketing of cars parked too far from the curb, in front of the eight-person city council at the meeting scheduled for 1 p.m. today.

The first, front-yard parking, has been simmering in a city committee since this summer after Raleigh City Councilman Thomas Crowder launched a campaign to have more regulation for residents who decide to park cars in their front-yards.

If the council approves a text change today, pulling up on a front lawn and leaving a car there will no longer be allowed. Residents will have to either pave a driveway or put down gravel with a defined edge provided by vegetation or some other type of marker.
Repeat violators could eventually be fined.

Also in front of the council is a recommendation to have parking enforcement slow down the amount of tickets written for cars parked a foot away from curbs.

The council is expected to pass an ordinance that gives motorists a break as long as they park within the 8-feet-wide spaces marked on streets in downtown and near N.C State University campus, where most of the city's parking enforcement is concentrated.

The enforcement of what's become known as the "12-inch rule" skyrocketed last year with 4,587 of the $20 tickets written in 2009 for cars parked more than a foot from city curbs. That was a big jump from 2008, when just 379 of the tickets were handed out.

Several city council members, including Mayor Charles Meeker and councilwoman Mary-Ann Baldwin, said they thought the ticketing was being a bit too picky and were worried it would discourage the downtown visitors the city has been trying to attract.

Check back with www.newsobserver.com, WakeWatch or your print edition of tomorrow's N&O to see what the council decides.

Want to tell us what you think? Leave your comments here, or email sarah.ovaska@newsobserver.com.

Scrap the Lightner public safety center?

SDOvaska1 — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 12:50:05 -0500

Three of the eight members of Raleigh's City Council came up with another idea this week about what to do about the the Clarence E. Lightner Public Safety Center.

Start over.

In a two-page memorandum, councilors Thomas Crowder, Bonner Gaylord and Russ Stephenson, asked city staff to figure out how much it would cost to renovate the current police headquarters at 110 S. McDowell St. and build a new emergency communications center just for 911 dispatchers.

"At a time when some are calling for burdensome tax increases and others are calling for painful sevice cuts, we believe there is a middle path that is responsive to our long-term emergency services needs -- without raising taxes or overshadowing other important current and future needs of our citizens," the three wrote in a letter to the rest of the council and Raleigh City Manager J. Russell Allen.

The proposed Lightner Center had been in the works for years, but catapolted into the public arena once Allen unveiled the proposed way to pay for it -- by bundling it with $250 million worth of public works projects and raising property taxes by 8 percent.

If built, it would house police administrators and detectives, fire adminstration, the emergency communications center, traffic management staff and the city's information technology department.

The Lightner Center, named for the Raleigh funeral director who served for one term and was the city's first and only black mayor, would be 17-stories high and 300,000 square feet. It'd be the biggest, and most expensive, city building.

There's little about the building that hasn't become controversial, with differing opinions from different city political corners weighing in on whether its needed, what it should cost and who should decide if the public safety center should be built.

The most controversial aspects have been the proposed tax increase to pay for the
building, a call to have the decision to build decided by voters at in
a citywide bond referendum and original plans to include up to $705,000
in public art in the project.

The request for a tax increase comes in the midst of an economic recession, and Raleigh's entire council has gotten hundreds of e-mails protesting the project, or asking to delay the project until the economy gets better.

Many of the opposition letters were identical, and appear to be a push from conservative quarters that think the issue should be decided by voters and not by city councilors.

Mary-Ann Baldwin, one of the council members, said she doesn't think the plan rolled out by Crowder, Gaylord and Stephenson meets the needs of the city, and reiterated that hte current 50-year-old bulding is falling apart and not suitable.

Raleigh Mayor Charles Meeker, who wants the project to go forward in order to cash in on what he says is $50 million in savings, hopes it will still pass, but with a different funding scenario. Some of the remote operations projects can be delayed, and the cost of the building might be able to be absorbed by impact or facilities fees. Meeker also asked that the art budget be narrowed to a third of the size.

The council has avoided taking action on the Lightner Center three times this year, and it's expected to be back in front of them at their next meeting on Feb. 16.

72,000 doughnuts later...

SDOvaska1 — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 10:50:24 -0500

It's one of Raleigh's oddest athletic events, the Krispy Kreme Challenge.

Today, organizers announced they'd reached their limit in runners with 6,000 signed up to run and scarf down donuts.

The race, scheduled for Feb. 6, is the brainchild of a handful of N.C. State University students who came up with the idea several years ago to run from campus to the Krispy Kreme store on Peace Street and back, eating a dozen donut in between. Fast forward a few years, and the KKC attracts thousands of runners, and raises money for the N.C. Children's Hospital.

The true challenge is to run the two miles from the N.C. State University Bell Tower, eat the dozen donuts, and run back in an hour, while keeping the doughnuts down.

Stretches of Peace, St. Mary's and Hillsborough streets end up getting littered with the partially-digested doughnuts by those runners who can't quite hold on to the baked goods.

If all the runners eat their donuts, that will mean a total of 72,000 doughnuts inhaled in one morning. Probably not a fun day to be on the clean-up crew.

Lightner vote today?

SDOvaska1 — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 11:54:03 -0500

The Raleigh City Council may be voting today about the proposed $205 million project to build the Clarence E. Lightner Public Safety Center, 17-story structure that would replace the current police headquarters.

The project has attracted controversy in recent weeks with grumblings about the property tax increase that’s been proposed to pay for the building.

The Wake County Republican Party has called for the project to go before voters in a bond referendum, and other conservative groups have taken issue with the $705,000 budgeted for public art.

If the council goes ahead with it, it could mean approving an eight-percent tax increase phased in over the next five years that would stay in place for the next 25 years. That would include $250 million in public works projects.

A house assessed at $200,000 would see their annual tax bill go up by $60.

Mayor Charles Meeker has been pushing to go ahead with the project, in order to cash in on $20 million in savings on construction and loan interest, but he’s facing resistance from several council members, including new member Bonner Gaylord, who have raised concerns about the size of the project and the timing of passing a tax increase in the worst economic climate since the Depression.

The city has already spent at least $21 million of the $205 million project, buying two buildings to relocate the police department to and the cost of the design and pre-construction services. Raleigh Police Chief Harry Dolan is moving ahead with relocating his department, despite not having the official green light from the council, and has said his staff will be out of the 50-year-old current police headquarters.

The new building would house police, fire, emergency communications and information techonology departments for the city.

The News & Observer will be at the meeting, and give updates on what happens at today’s council meeting.

Check back to find out, or offer your thoughts on what you’d like the council to do, or what questions you may have. You can also email reporter Sarah Ovaska at sarah.ovaska@newsobserver.com.

Raleigh's proposed bill for art in new center: $705,000

SDOvaska1 — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 11:09:40 -0500

With the Raleigh City Council still wavering over whether it’ll go forward with a new $205 million public safety center, critics of the building are honing their sights on the project’s fine print.

Particularly irksome for Joey Stansbury, who heads the conservative group Wake Community PAC, is $705,000 slated to pay for public art at the 17-story building.

"It's a lack of priorities," said Stansbury.

But the money for public art is required by a city ordinance passed last spring that calls for all capital improvement projects, like the center, to dedicate as much as one-half of one percent of the total cost to art.

The Clarence E. Lightner building is priced at $140 million, giving way to the $705,000 estimate for art. The other $65 million in the Lightner project would cover design costs, relocation of police staff to two recently-bought buildings and the cost of outfitting the new building with furniture and equipment.

Nearly $21 million has already been spent by the city on the project though it hasn’t gotten the official go-ahead from the council. Giving the project a green light also means the council will be signing up for a politically risky property tax increase for Raleigh city residents.

The council will revisit the Lightner Center project at its Jan. 19 meeting. Approving it would mean a likely property tax increase of 8 percent over five years, which would also pay for $250 million worth of public works projects to put new maintenance facilities for city and a new wastew. Mayor Charles Meeker, who is pushing for the project to go forward, has said the current police, fire and emergency communications facilitates are inadequate and should have been updated years ago.

Meeker said there’s been no specific art works chosen for the building, but that including art in the budget makes what could be drab government buildings into something visually interesting. The entire $705,000 doesn’t need to be used for art, he said.

“The public art really is important,” he said.

ITB vs. OTB?

SDOvaska1 — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 17:05:52 -0500

Hoping to settle the ever-simmering debate in Raleigh of what gets more attention, Inside the Beltline or Outside the Beltline, the city of Raleigh issued a news release Friday that announced that the neighborhoods outside the city's core gets the lion's share of goods.

Well, not exactly.

Out of the $1.2 billion that the city of Raleigh has spent or earmarked for capital improvement projects since July 2006, about 57 percent has gone to projects Inside the Beltline, or ITB.

That's because the city included projects like the Raleigh Convention Center, paid for with taxes collected from hotel rooms and restaurant sales, as well as the proposed Clarence E. Lightner Center as general public improvements, Allen said.

But Outside the Beltine, or OTB, topped the ITB when it comes to parks, streets, stormwater and public utilities with the city spending $3.50 outside the Beltline for every $1 that's spent inside, according to TrianglePolitics calculations.

What prompted the Inner vs. Outer comparison? Several Raleigh city council members, including Mayor Charles Meeker, heard from voters while on the campaign trail this fall who kept asking if the city was spending more downtown than out in people’s neighborhoods, Allen said.

Click here to see the breakdown for yourself.

The Stan Norwalk Quarter

KeungHui — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 13:24:28 -0500

How many times will County Commissioners Chairman Tony Gurley gavel Commission Stan Norwalk out of order today?

Gurley, a Republican, and Norwalk, a Democrat, have been going at each other since Norwalk was elected in 2008. For instance last month, Gurley accused Norwalk of using his diabetes as a political ploy to stall for more time so that Democrat Betty Lou Ward could be elected vice chairwoman.

Gurley said he and fellow Republican Commissioner Paul Coble even came up with a special "Stan Norwalk Quarter" last year when Democrat Harold Webb was chairman.

Gurley said that whenever Norwalk said something they felt was outrageous, both he and Coble would want to respond. But Gurley said Webb would only recognize one of them to speak after he and Coble both raised their hands.

As a result, Gurley said Coble would take out his quarter and flip with one of them calling heads or tails. The winner would raise his hand to be recognized by Webb.

A new public safety center and higher taxes? Raleigh city council decides tomorrow

SDOvaska1 — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 12:36:03 -0500

Tomorrow's Raleigh City Council meeting is bound to be interesting with the eight-person council set to vote on whether or not to go ahead with plans to build the $205 million Clarence E. Lightner Public Safety Center.

Saying yes means a likely property tax increase in the worst economy since the Depression.

But the Raleigh City Council is also holding a hearing Tuesday evening designed solely to hear residents' input about the budget: what should and shouldn't be paid for with city dollars. Anyone with two cents to offer is invited to attend.

The public safety center, 17-stories high and named after Raleigh's first and only black mayor, would replace the current Raleigh police headquarters on McDowell Street near downtown's Nash Square and on the same block as City Hall.

Though most councilors agree that the current facilities for the police, fire and emergency communications are inadequate, the financing of the project has proven worrisome.

Three have said they are for it, including Raleigh Mayor Charles Meeker, while three oppose going forward on it because of the timing and financing that could mean an 8-percent tax increase. Not decided yet are Nancy McFarlane, who represents a swath of North Raleigh neighborhoods, and councilor-at-large Russ Stephenson

Raleigh City Manager Russell Allen suggested that the council consider a $500 million loan that would combine the building with $250 million in various public utility projects around the city.
And that could mean a likely property tax increase for Raleigh taxpayers when the council hashes out its budget this spring and summer.

Allen's proposed a funding model for the Lightner project that would add three cents phased in over the next five years to the current tax rate of $0.375 for each $100 the assessed value of a property. In short, homeowners with a house assessed at $200,000 would see a $20 jump in their taxes for each penny, $60 in total.

Meeker wants to move ahead with the project, acting now
could mean saving the taxpayers as much as $20 million by locking into
lower interest loans and constructions costs.

The vote on the Lightner Center is expected during the council's afternoon meeting, which is open to the public and begins at 1 p.m. at the Council Chamber, Room 201 of the Avery C. Upchurch Government Complex, 222 W. Hargett St.

But the council will come back at 7 p.m. to hear from the public about what should, and shouldn't, be funded by the city in the coming year.

Click here to check out a photo gallery of the proposed center, designed to be energy efficient and house the city's police, fire, emegency communications and technology departments.

Have thoughts on this? Contact Sarah Ovaska at sarah.ovaska@newsobserver.com or (919) 829-4622.

Local pols in need of New Year's help

SDOvaska1 — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 12:01:43 -0500

Political gadflies and opinionated citizens, we still want to hear from you.

Triangle Politics figured that many of our elected leaders in Durham, Orange and Wake counties may have their hands full. So we thought we'd help them out and offer some suggested New Year's resolutions from readers.

This is your chance to tell us what you wish the leaders who control the purse strings and spend tax dollars would do in the new year.

Post here or e-mail your suggested resolutions for any or all Durham, Orange and Wake political or government leaders to sarah.ovaska@newsobserver.com, and we'll print some of the best ones. Please keep it short, simple and clean, we're trying to avoid doing the heavy editing today.

And, just for your information, some of the crew over here at the N&O is resolving to start avoiding those office donuts. The only exception will be for this year's Krispy Kreme Challenge, planned for Feb. 6 and now open for registration.

So send those resolutions our way!

From grease to fuel in Raleigh

SDOvaska1 — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 10:50:43 -0500

The city of Raleigh wants residents to unleash their grease.
City crews will collect used cooking oil and grease from resident's homes as part of a pilot program being enacted for the holiday season. The collected oils will be converted into biofuels by Triangle Biofuels, a local company that's buying the grease from the city for $0.25 a gallon.
The free program is up and running, so residents can begin putting their grease out on the curb along with their trash and recycling once they contact the city's Solid Waste Service Department to arrange a pickup.
The program will run through Jan. 15 and includes pick-ups at churches and places of worship.
Pickup won't be automatic, residents need to call solid waste workers at 996-6890 to arrange a pickup at least a day before their weekly trash day.
The grease should be in a sealed container, like a milk jug or old coffee can, but can not be kept in glass containers.
Questions? Call the city of Raleigh's Public Utilities Department at 857-4540.

From Raleigh to China...

SDOvaska1 — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 16:57:48 -0400

It appears that Raleigh City Council member Mary Ann Baldwin used $1,800 of her campaign war chest to pay for an upcoming trip to China with the Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce.
Baldwin said the trip offers chances to learn about the Chinese economy and viewed the trip as an extension of her council duties.
The trip, scheduled for Oct. 24 to Nov. 1, includes nine days worth of sight-seeing, with stops at China’s Great Wall and Tiananmen Square. Harvey Schmitt, the chamber’s president, said the trip is being billed as a way for participate to familiarize themselves with China to gain a better understanding of the nation’s economy and people.
Baldwin she used $500 of her own money, in addition to the $1,799 that her campaign paid for.
"You’re kind of between a rock and a hard place," Baldwin said about the decision to use campaign funds. "You don’t want to use tax-payer money for something like that.”
Nancy McFarlane, a fellow Raleigh city council member, is also going on one of the three trips the chamber organized this fall to China.
Baldwin, a marketing consultant elected to the council in 2007, is one of five people running for the two council-at-large positions in Tuesday’s Oct. 6 municipal elections.

City Council votes to include median--not center turn lane--in Falls of Neuse Road widening

dbracken — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 15:48:20 -0400

The City Council voted unanimously today to include a median, and not a center turn lane, in a widened 1.3-mile section of Falls of Neuse Road.

The vote ends several months of debate over the road’s design. City and state officials had recommended that the widening of Falls of Neuse from Raven Ridge Road to Fonville Road include a median with interspersed turn lanes.

A coalition of residents along the stretch had been lobbying for a five-lane design that included a center turn lane. N&O reporter Sarah Lindenfeld Hall explained both sides of the issue in a recent North Raleigh News article.

The approved road design includes a 17.5-foot-wide median and traffic signals at Raven Ridge Road, Dunn Road and Wide River Drive.

Although the council voted for the median design, it also agreed to address several concerns raised by residents. Six months after the road widening is complete, the city will review the road’s performance to see if any additional traffic signals are needed. The city has also agreed to improve landscaping at several points along the stretch being widened.

The 1.3-mile section is part of a $29 million project to realign Falls of Neuse Road through Wakefield Plantation and add a new bridge over the Neuse River below Falls Lake. The city is contributing $15.2 million toward the project, with the remaining funding coming from state and federal sources.

Falls of Neuse is a state road.

Obama to Meeker: We'll Git R Done

dbracken — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 14:54:46 -0400

As many television viewers may have noticed, Raleigh Mayor Charles Meeker greeted President Barack Obama when Air Force One arrived at RDU on Wednesday.

Meeker, a fellow Democrat, said this was the second time he'd met Obama, the first being a brief encounter on the Wednesday before the November election when the future president was in town for a campaign event.

Meeker said Wednesday's meeting was also brief and "entirely ceremonial."

"I thanked him for coming back to Raleigh and working hard on this health care and he said we’re going to get it done and got in the car and took off."