2025 State of the Town
The Wake Forest Rotary Club presented the 16th Annual State of the Town Address & Dinner on Monday, Feb. 17, 2025, at the Wake Forest Renaissance Centre.
Debbie Dunn served as the evening's emcee.
During a special part of the event, Wake Forest Rotary Club President Shipman Northcutt presented recently retired Wake Forest Police Chief Jeff Leonard with the Vivian A Jones Rotary Peace Award.
Just prior to introducing Wake Forest Mayor Vivian Jones, Dunn introduced a new video, "Wake Forest State of Mind."
During her address, Wake Forest Mayor Vivian Jones provided Wake Forest citizens an opportunity to reflect on an impressive list of accomplishments in 2024. She also discussed a number of goals Wake Forest will strive towards in 2025.
Full Text of 2025 State of the Town Address
2025 State of the Town – February 2025
Thank you all for being here tonight. Thanks especially to the Wake Forest Rotary Club for your continued support of this event. We appreciate the opportunity to partner with you and thank you for the work you do in our community.
I also want to say a personal thank you to all the elected officials and my special friend Betty Jo Shepheard for being here. I know you are all busy folks and it means a great deal to me and to our community for you to be here.
Before I begin I just want to say thank you to our Public Works guys who have been out all day getting us ready for the winter weather predicted for later this week. They are putting brine on the roads and getting plows ready. We appreciate them and thank them.
I have been thinking a lot this year about why I got involved in local government. I certainly did not grow up thinking this was something I would like to do.
So, with your indulgence, I’d like to spend the first few minutes of my remarks this evening sharing with you my very own version of it’s a wonderful life.
I grew up out in the country in Randolph County. My father was a commercial flooring contractor—an interesting fact; my first connection to Wake Forest was that my father and his crew laid the floors in the new Wake Forest College in Winston Salem back in the early 50’s when they moved.
My mother had a big vegetable garden and lots of beautiful flowers. I’m sure that is one of the reasons I love the flowers that the Women’s Club Flower Cart brings to me every week.
We were surrounded by family and friends, and I had a wonderful childhood.
My parents were very involved in the community and very active at church. My father served on our local school board and on the fire department board after we had a fire station built in our community. The point is, they taught me to support my community and to be a part of it.
I attended college one year and then got married. My husband was a sales rep and we moved to several different states over the next 20 years and then moved back to North Carolina. In 1981 we moved to Wake Forest.
Unfortunately, we divorced in 1989, but I stayed in Wake Forest because my daughter was in high school, and I wanted her to graduate before I decided what to do.
Well, my sister, Jonnie, decided to move to Wake Forest and we started a restaurant and a catering business in downtown.
We were very involved in trying to grow downtown working with the Downtown Revitalization Group and working with the Chamber. Actually, Jonnie was the chair of the Chamber Board one year.
When I moved here in 1981, there was very little going on in Wake Forest. There were just under 5,000 people living here and the big joke was always that you had to go to Raleigh - even to buy underwear!
Anyway, a few people came up with the idea to have our Commissioners elected in districts rather than at large and I didn’t think that was necessary at the time so I decided to run for the Town Board and I was elected.
I began to attend meetings of elected officials in Wake County and North Carolina League meetings, and I discovered that Wake Forest really was not very highly regarded. Everyone thought we were located way up there in the northern end of the county, and they didn’t need to pay attention to us.
But, I realized Wake County and Wake Forest were beginning to grow. I knew that if we wanted to have a seat at the table and be connected to the Triangle, we needed to build relationships with County leaders and State leaders.
Two years later, it was time to elect a mayor, and I stepped in, and I have given Wake Forest a seat at the table, and I have built relationships.
I love this quote I jotted down; I don’t remember where I got it but I thought it spoke to my feelings. It goes like this; “I never had the ambition to BE something. I had the ambition to DO something.”
Now – 24 years later – I feel more honored today than ever to serve as your mayor.
One more thing I want to share with you. I had the pleasure and the honor of knowing John Lyon for most of my years in Wake Forest.
John was mayor of Wake Forest in the 1970’s and he passed away in January of this year. Jonnie and I rented space from John to house our restaurant, and we also rented an apartment over the frame shop downtown from him—we lived there for 15 years!
I knew that John was revered as a leader in Wake Forest. He had been a businessman who made a difference in people’s lives and had worked hard to make our community successful. But it was after I was elected mayor that I became aware of the true legacy John left behind when he served as mayor.
I learned that he ran for mayor because he had a vision for how the town should change in order to meet the future.
John Lyon transformed the Town of Wake Forest from a Mayor/Council form of government to the Manager/Council form of government.
He led the Town Board in hiring the first Town Administrator now called Manager. This change allowed the town to begin establishing the municipal structure that would be able to serve the community and provide the services our residents expect and demand.
His foresight was instrumental in setting up the Town of Wake Forest for success as we began to grow. He was the perfect mayor for that time to prepare us for the future.
It is amazing to realize all the wonderful things that have happened in Wake Forest over the past 20 years.
We have become a place where people want to live and raise their families. And our residents take care of each other. A fairly new resident just the other day was telling me she loved Wake Forest and she said, “People are so kind and caring here.”
We see that in the various programs that are supported by our residents like the Northern Community Food Security Team of which Drew Brown is a leader.
They started the Mobile Market over a year ago and citizens come from all over to purchase fresh vegetables, milk and other products at whatever price they can afford to pay- from nothing to market price.
This year they also started a Produce Prescription program that delivers healthy produce to those with medical conditions requiring healthier meals. Also, they have a food pantry box outside of the Northern Regional Center which results in stocking food pantries at the Center and at Hope House.
The Town supports, along with our residents, the Wake Forest Community Table which provides meals twice a week for those who need help at Hope House and Olive Branch Baptist Church.
And of course, we can’t forget all the donations of food and money that our residents provide to the Tri-Area Ministry Food Pantry.
What a blessing our residents are to the people who need help. You approve of the Town doing what it can, and you step up and do what you can also.
This year the Town kicked off the inaugural “Empowering Leaders” Leadership Academy for our employees. The first class includes 14 employees from 14 different departments. If you’re a member of the Leadership Academy, please stand up.
The program helps them focus on self-awareness, leadership skills, communication skills and team building among other things.
This is an 8-month program which will identify, develop, and nurture future leaders in our organization. This program helps us meet our Strategic Plan Goal #1 to Sustain Excellent Town Services by helping to attract and retain Town staff by building up and promoting our employees.
Speaking of building up our employees, our Human Resources Department works on that all the time. They have instituted programs to promote wellness, professional development, civility training, and supervisory practices.
All of this, of course, in addition to working to hire the very best employees they can find and provide benefits they deserve because we want to continue to be an Employer of Choice.
Continuing on that theme, we have just experienced the retirement of our Police Chief Jeff Leonard.
Chief Leonard is a native of Wake Forest and he began his career as a part-time auxiliary officer in 1992 and became a full-time officer in 1994. He served in a variety of positions over the years and was named Police Chief in 2010.
Under his 15-year leadership, the department experienced tremendous growth and gained a great reputation in North Carolina for its professionalism and willingness to help others. It also attained CALEA accreditation which is the gold standard in public safety excellence.
In case you missed the retirement celebration we had for the Chief, we want to share that he was awarded the Order of the Long Leaf Pine by our Governor—watch this video.
Chief Leonard is with us tonight—would you please stand.
We are so proud of all of our police officers and all they do to keep our community safe. I love the way they interact with the public, always willing to talk and visit.
If you haven’t had a chance to go to one of their monthly Coffee With A Cop events, I encourage you to do that. You will enjoy getting to know them.
We can never say “thank you” enough to the best Police Department in the country.
Police Captain Matt May just retired also. He was a steady pillar in our department for many years.
And Captain David Davis of the Wake Forest Fire Department just retired-another long-serving employee in our Town.
This got me to thinking because I realized that we have had several long-time employees retire recently. I looked back and since November of 2023, we have had 6 police officers, one Firefighter, one Electric Systems Utility Manager, and our wonderful Town Clerk—a total of nine employees who represent almost 220 years of institutional knowledge.
This is a significant statistic! And, we have three or four more long-time employees retiring this year!
I can’t help but feel proud that we have so many employees, especially police officers who come here and want to stay for their entire career. It speaks volumes about the leadership of our staff and the type of employees we have.
By the way, we have had a couple of changes in our senior staff. Captain Julius Jefferson has been named Interim Police Chief and Jennifer Currin has been named Planning Director. These were both promotions from within and I am sure they will continue doing a great job for the Town.
Wake Forest Power continues to provide the most reliable power of any provider in our area. We are proud of the work they do. They are always ready to step in when needed.
I can’t say enough good things about our linemen and their willingness to work in all kinds of weather and situations to make sure our power stays on.
Also, they are always willing to go and help others during times of distress. They were ready on the spot to send a crew to western North Carolina after Helene damaged so many power lines in that area. And they went to Florida after Milton hit.
They received national commendation from the American Public Power Association for their restoration assistance.
You know, Mutual Aid is always at the heart of public power and our guys are always willing to step up and help.
The Wake Forest Fire Department had another busy year—the 48th annual Fish Fry, Toys for Tots, Shop with a Firefighter among other things.
Their Honor Guard is a big part of the Wake Forest Flag-Raising Ceremonies and at some of the Carolina Hurricanes games also.
This year we purchased property to build our sixth fire station so we can continue our excellent service.
The Fire Department was also very helpful during the emergency in western North Carolina this year—watch this video to see how:
Isn’t that great?
In addition, The Fire Department served as a collection point for gathering food and supplies and monetary donations in Wake Forest.
They sent about 300 pallets of food, water, and supplies and a check for $112,000 to Samaritan’s Purse due to the tremendous generosity of our community.
Doesn’t that make you proud to live in Wake Forest!
We accomplished some great things in Parks, Recreation and Cultural Resources this year also. The Inclusive Playground completed at Holding Park in March has been a great success. It makes me so happy to drive by there any day at any time and usually see a bunch of kids having fun.
The upgrades we made to Field #2 at Flaherty Park are outstanding. The new dugouts, backstop, fencing, and other upgrades make this field a beautiful site for our FUNGO baseball games.
We continue our partnership with FUNGO, our College Summer League Team and hope all of you will come out this summer and watch a game.
We completed the Parks and Recreation Master Plan update and in preparation for the future, we received a PARTF grant to assist with building our future skate park near Joyner Park.
I mentioned the Parks & Rec Master Plan update but that was just one of many planning projects this year. The Planning Department has been very busy! We adopted the Downtown Plan Update and the South Main Street Corridor Study Plan was adopted. And we assisted NCDOT on The Mobility Hub design concept.
Planning spent a lot of time last year – and our community members did too - on the UDO and the draft was all ready for adoption when the Legislature made some changes. We are reviewing all of that and I understand the Legislature is reviewing it and I hope we will be able to adopt the UDO soon.
Planning received two awards this year. The Marvin Collins Award for our Community Plan from the APA North Carolina Chapter and also the Gertrude S. Carraway Award of Preservation Merit for the Rehabilitation of the Ailey Young House.
Sometimes we are presented an opportunity to make things better and we should take advantage of those times to significantly transform our services.
We had such an opportunity this year with our public transportation offerings and on October 1st we launched Go Wake Forest.
This shared ride service has had great early success with expanding availability and frequency for our residents. The Town Board has approved expanding the number of vans that will be used in order to provide adequate rides for everyone.
We are excited to be able to offer this service and feel that it will continue to expand and improve.
We began the service as a free service because we wanted to make sure everything was working well. We will probably have to begin charging sometime this year in the $2.00 to $3.00 range per ride; but we will figure out a way to make it continue to be free or discounted for people who need assistance.
One thing you have heard a lot about this year is the S-Line. We have been working closely with NCDOT and we are seeing progress made. NCDOT received a $1.2 billion grant to complete the infrastructure changes needed from Raleigh to Wake Forest.
They have begun the work in building the overpasses and extra rails needed. They expect this work to be completed and the Piedmont train to be operational from Wake Forest to Charlotte by 2030.
The Town has also received a grant in cooperation with NCDOT to build the station in Wake Forest. We have applied for another grant to allow us to expand the station into a true hub with a restaurant, retail, and other amenities which will add to our downtown offerings.
However, we just heard last week that these funds have been put on hold. But I feel sure these projects will go forward.
As you can see, the Town of Wake Forest had another busy year in 2024. We are always so proud of our accomplishments. One of those accomplishments is our continuing to be one of the best financially managed towns in North Carolina.
Once again – we had our Triple A bond rating certified. This Triple A rating enables us to borrow money at an excellent rate, but it also lets everyone know that our finances are in good shape, and we are serving our residents extremely well.
This accomplishment is led by our excellent Finance Department, but it is something that takes the dedication of all our employees to make it work.
Once again, I say, we have the very best staff in North Carolina.
It’s hard to believe, but the Wireless Research Center is celebrating its fifteenth year this year. Originally the WRC was established to be one of only about three premier wireless research and testing facilities in the world.
As a non-profit they were able to assist many clients from all over the world with not only testing but also engineering assistance without threatening their intellectual property. Over the years their influence has expanded.
Twelve years ago, they established RIOT which is a consortium of internet of things organizations and businesses that meet to learn from each other and assist emerging companies and talents to flourish.
Their engineering assistance and innovation impacts have grown exponentially over the years. The WRC is now heavily involved with the Department of Defense ecosystem through several projects and numerous partnerships. We continue to be proud of this entity the Town helped establish in our community.
The WRC will continue to impact our community in the years to come.
Last year we partnered with the AARP to become an Age Friendly Community. Under the direction of Ann Welton, we conducted a survey to discover what our needs are.
We have identified our three focus areas which are Senior Activities, Bike/Pedestrian/Transit Transportation Issues, and Youth Activities. We will spend the next few months hosting open houses to get your input into developing our Action Plan.
The next three years will be the time for putting that action plan to work as we try to make Wake Forest a place where people of all ages can thrive.
Beginning in July, the Town will assume all responsibility for the Northern Wake Senior Center. As you know, the Town owns the building and maintains it, but Resources for Seniors has provided programming. They have asked for assistance and the Town Board approved bringing it under the Town’s municipal structure.
We are excited that this will allow us to not only continue the great programs they have now but actually expand them to meet the ever-growing number of seniors in our community.
Assistant Town Manager Candace Davis has been busy with her team getting all the pieces in place for this transition. As part of the process the Senior Center staff requested that we change the name of the Center. We are pleased to announce that as of July 1, 2025, it will be known as the Wake Forest Center for Active Aging.
We also realize that the Center is close to being maxed out—just some statistics to help you understand there are over 3700 active members who live in Wake Forest. Being an active member means you attend 2 or more times per week. We also have over 500 active members who do not live in Wake Forest.
Just as an example, in one month, last November they offered 50 fitness classes, 18 arts & crafts classes, 9 computer and language classes, 18 health and support groups met, and 17 clubs met. And, this was just the major stuff going on! And, all these programs were full with a waiting list!
A new Center must be moved up on our priority list.
Wouldn’t Thelma Wright, Mabel Shearing, Hope Newsom and many others be proud! If you don’t know what I’m talking about, ask an old-time Wake Forest person!
The Feasibility Study for a Performing Arts Center was presented to the Board at our Retreat in January.
The Study showed us what we all felt was true— Our community has a high degree of interest in the arts and there is a demand for significantly more event and performing arts space.
We will be planning to make the capital investment needed to provide the facilities that would house performance space and event space for the quality and diverse programming our residents desire and expect.
We are excited about the possibilities presented and we will be going forward with plans this year to get started on expanding our arts programming opportunities.
Another issue we discussed at the retreat involves our vacant buildings downtown. Vacant buildings can create an uninviting appearance and discourage people from visiting or spending time downtown. We will be addressing this issue with an ordinance that will require registration and other details.
Our biggest issues involve the challenges associated with our growth. That is the thing most people complain about. Actually, not many people complain; mostly I hear from our residents that they love living in Wake Forest.
But I love this quote I saw on Facebook from the Episcopal Church Memes site—it says, “how many Episcopalians does it take to change a light bulb? Ten—one to actually change the bulb and nine to talk about how much they liked the old one.”
Let’s stop talking about how much we like the old one!
Because you know, smart growth matters. It matters for individuals, for livelihoods, for businesses and for public finances in order to provide services.
Growth raises living standards and incomes. A town without growth requires someone to be worse off so you can be better off.
Disruptions caused by growth sometimes causes politicians to be wary. It can lead to meddling into policy that might limit that growth.
But, pro-growth policies that can account for disruptions while encouraging innovation and limited regulation must remain.
We must be visionary thinkers. We must get away from the backward-looking protecting that weakens growth.
We must address the disruption and continue to move forward.
As Pete Buttigieg said, “You can’t shut down city government because you don’t all agree. You just have to figure it out. Public service is not all about you—it is to serve others.”
Thank you for allowing us to serve you.