By
votes that were nearly
unanimous, the Smithfield
Town Council Tuesday night
cleared the way for two
separate townhouse
projects with entrances
onto Waddell Drive, a
circular street off North
Bright Leaf Boulevard.
Heritage Townes at Waddell
will have 17 three-bedroom
units in three buildings
positioned on 1.88 acres.
Each two-story unit will
have a two-car garage.
Shovel Ready Johnson, Inc.
of Raleigh (Samuel
O'Brien) is the developer.
Waddell Drive Townhomes
will have 16 two-bedroom
units in three buildings
on 1.63 acres. Each unit
will have two outdoor
parking spaces. Terraeden
Landscape & Design of
Smithfield (Paul Embler)
is the developer. The
property is owned by
Spectrum Realty and Sun
Auto Wash, which is
located adjacent to the
site.
During a public hearing on
the Heritage Townes
project last month,
council members raised
concerns about the
suitability of Waddell
Drive's substandard width
of 18 feet for a
concentration of
additional residents.
Addressing the issue,
engineers with a firm
employed by the developer
presented a traffic
analysis at Tuesday's
meeting which concluded
the street is "more than
adequate" to handle the
increased load.
Jason Hamilton of Bohler
Engineering said Waddell
Drive can handle up to
4,400 vehicles per day.
The proposed housing would
generate 770 trips daily,
he noted.
Bill Dreitzler, the town's
engineer, agreed with the
consultant's finding. "In
my professional opinion,
this project can be
adequately supported
without any improvements
to Waddell Drive," he told
the council, which
subsequently approved the
plan by a vote of 6-1.
Councilman Travis Scott,
who represents the North
Smithfield District, cast
the only negative vote.
The council voted without
dissent to approve the
second project, which
Planning Director Stephen
Wensman noted will provide
landscaped screening as
well as a six-foot-high
fence between the
townhouses and adjacent
single-family dwellings.
"These are local people;
they care about the
community," added
Councilman Scott.
No one spoke in opposition
to either project during
Tuesday's public hearings.
A view from the
editor's home office
shows workers Wednesday
morning preparing to
fill in one of numerous
trenches dug within the
town's right-of-way in
front of residences for
installation of
fiber-optic cables by
Lumos, an Internet
provider that's new to
the local market. The
crew that dug this hole
Tuesday morning severed
the Weekly Sun's
Internet line. It was
repaired that afternoon.
Town
Council blasts handling
of fiber-optic project
Near
the close of Tuesday's
meeting, Councilman Travis
Scott reported numerous
complaints from residents
about the work going on to
bury fiber-optic cables
throughout Smithfield.
Existing underground
utility lines – carrying
water, natural gas, and
cable-TV signals – have
been cut, with a rash of
those incidents reported
in South Smithfield
neighborhoods this past
week.
Mayor Andy Moore said he's
concerned about cuts made
in the pavement of streets
that are left uncovered at
night with no protection
other than traffic cones.
"I wasn't aware there
would be street cuts," he
said. "We should stop work
until we get some
answers."
Councilman Scott made a
motion to ask Lumos, the
fiber-optic provider whose
contractors are handling
the job, "to stop their
work and correct what
errors they've made before
they dig any more holes."
Councilman Barbour
seconded the motion after
Town Attorney Bob Spence
said "we can ask them to
do that" short of ordering
an outright moratorium on
construction. The motion
carried by unanimous vote.
The construction crews
were back on the job
Wednesday morning and by
day's end appeared to have
closed most of the holes
they had opened in South
Smithfield. At the same
time, digging of new
trenches continued.
Meanwhile, Town Manager Mike
Scott, responding to a
citizen's complaint posted
on Facebook, e-mailed the
following statement to the
Weekly Sun: "Lumos is
responsible for all damage.
We contract out most of the
repairs so they pay the
contracted costs so our guys
can tend to the town's other
issues.... Lumos is
responsible for all damage
they cause."
Three-way
stop approved for
Hancock & Second
streets
At
the request of Police
Chief Pete Hedrick, the
council authorized a
three-way stop at the
intersection of North
Second and Hancock
streets. In a memo to the
council, the chief cited
"speed and an increase in
traffic volume" as reasons
for the change.
Schools add four more to roster of
"Living Legends"
Johnston
County Public Schools
recognized this year's
class of "Living Legends"
at last week's meeting of
the Board of Education: (left
to right) Darla
Peedin, Darlene Williford,
James E. Barbour, and
Pearl Blackmon – all
retired educators with
more than 100 years,
collectively, of service
in the county's schools.
It's the 21st year this
honor has been bestowed.
Their names are being
added to a plaque that
hangs inside the school
system's headquarters on
US 70 Business east of
Smithfield. (Photo from
Johnston County Public
Schools)
READ a full
story about this year's
recipients in a news
release from JCPS>
She led last week's
Christmas parade
Long-time
public-school educator
Carolyn Ennis was honored
as "Grand Marshal" for
Smithfield's parade, held
last Thursday. Earlier
last week, she was
recognized for putting
together the "Living
Legends" presentation
reported above. (Johnston
County Public Schools
Facebook photo).
Property-revaluation
notices are coming
very soon
The
County of Johnston,
anticipating "sticker
shock" for many owners of
real estate, has posted a website
including videos
explaining the
process>
County Tax Administrator
Jocelyn Andrews told the
County Commissioners at
their last scheduled
meeting of the year on
December 2 that Johnston's
taxpayers "will see a much
larger increase" than the
average 24% resulting from
the county's last
revaluation in 2019. "I
don't have that number yet
– let me be clear about
that," she said of the
current process nearing
completion.
"Our goal is to mail
notices to all taxpayers
by the end of the year or
around the first of the
(new) year," she told
commissioners.
Ms. Andrews reported
increases in neighboring
counties that underwent
property revaluations a
year ago: 52% in Wake
County, 56% in Wilson
County, and a whopping 70%
in suburban Franklin
County.
"Johnston County has
changed significantly"
since our 2019
revaluation," she
emphasized. "Our growth
has been substantial."
Even so, the county's
property owners won't know
what their tax bills will
look like until the County
Commissioners and
Johnston's town boards set
their tax rates when they
adopt budgets for 2025-26
in June, Ms. Andrews
explained. Those bills are
normally mailed out in
early August, with
payments due without
penalty in early January
2026, she noted.
In most cases, our local
governing boards will
reduce their current tax
rates to make their new
budgets "revenue neutral"
or revised downward to
some level that keeps tax
bills well under the
percentage jump expected
from revaluation.
Looking at the bright side
of higher revaluations for
most Johnstonians, "that
means their net worth has
gone up considerably,"
observed County
Commissioner Ted Godwin, a
retired banker.
State law requires North
Carolina's counties to
undertake property
revaluation at least every
eight years. Urban
counties like Wake moved
to four-year revaluations
some time ago, and
Johnston is in the process
of moving to that
schedule, with the current
revaluation coming six
years after the last one
and the next one to be
done four years from now.
Ms. Andrews said the more
frequent schedule will
reduce so-called "sticker
shock" and prove to be
fairer for all taxpayers
as Johnston continues its
accelerated growth.
Revaluation has no effect
on local property taxes
due now. The deadline for
paying the current year's
bills to avoid
late-payment penalties is
Monday, January 6.
County moving website to JohnstonNC.gov
January 1
Beginning January
1, the County of
Johnston's official
website – JohnstonNC.com –will move to
JohnstonNC.gov. To ease
the transition, the old
address will
automatically redirect
to the new URL, allowing
citizens time to adjust
to the change.
A ".gov" domain is
reserved exclusively for
government organizations
and signals the county's
official status as a
trusted and credible
source for information and
services. It enhances
transparency, improves
security, and helps
protect users from
impersonation.
"Switching to
a .gov domain
ensures we’re meeting
legal and regulatory
requirements, like data
privacy and accessibility
standards, while also
making it easier for
residents and visitors to
find us online," explained Jeff
Howard, the county's
Technology Services
director.
Along
with the website URL
change, Johnston County
will also transition its
e-mail addresses from
".com" to ".gov" starting
January 1. Even so,
e-mails sent to the old
.com addresses will
automatically forward to
the new .gov addresses.
WHAT'S COMING
UP
Winter Solstice will occur at 4:21
a.m. EST this Saturday
That's
when the Sun reaches its
lowest arc on the Northern
Hemisphere's horizon,
producing our shortest
days and longest nights of
the year. While Saturday's
event is designated as the
start of astronomical
Winter, meteorological
Winter began the first of
December. We've surely
experienced winter-like
temperatures already.
Christmas holidays next Tuesday,
Wednesday, Thursday
The
State of North Carolina and
our local governments will
observe three weekdays of
Christmas holidays December
24-26 (next
Tuesday-Thursday). Even so,
the Town of Smithfield
has announced it will
operate its sanitation
pickup routes on normal
schedules throughout the
holidays. The town's
"convenience center" near
the intersection of
Buffalo and Hospital roads
– normally open Wednesdays
and Saturdays – will be
closed after this weekend
until Saturday, January 4.
Most banks, meanwhile,
will be closed only
Christmas Day and New
Year's Day.
DEATHS
& FUNERALS
SEASON'S
GREETINGS from our
faithful sponsors:
MERRY
CHRISTMAS! from the
Carroll family and all
of us at
"Trusted
by families since
1977"
840
S. Bright Leaf Blvd.
• 919-934-7164
• www.carrollpharmacy.com
WE WISH YOU
A JOYFUL
CHRISTMAS!
armstronglawyers.com
• 919-934-1575
MERRY
CHRISTMAS from our
staff and their
spouses!
'Twas
the day before
Christmas
and all through the
house
not a creature was
stirring . . .
except the REALTOR and
clients
as they turned out the
light:
"Merry Christmas to all,
and to all a good
night!"
SUSAN
LASSITER
FONVILLE
MORISEY REALTY
919-669-9235
A
WORD (OR TWO) FROM THE
EDITOR
'Tis the season to uphold cherished
family traditions
And
so I shall herein share
three I hold dear:
"Yes,
Virginia, there is a
Santa Claus"...
I'm
not sure what year my
father started publishing
that famous editorial in
our family's Smithfield
Herald, but we made
sure it appeared in print
every year, and I will
continue that tradition by
providing a link to
the full text here>
Handel's
magnificent Messiah...
That
music filled our home for
as long as I can remember,
made doubly meaningful
because my late sister
could sing every chorus
and soprano aria in it
(she went on to major in
voice and piano at Duke).
In the midst of our
present-day political
turmoil, I'm especially
drawn this year to the
hopeful prophecy of Isaiah
expressed in one of Messiah's
bass arias: "The people
that walked in darkness
have seen a great light."
The
first of several Lionel
trains...
Santa
Claus brought me a
cast-iron steam engine
with freight cars and
track in 1952 (when I was
almost six years old), and
that thing still runs! I
set up the track and run
the train every
Christmastime. My mother's
forebears were railroad
men, so having a
model-train set has always
been more than just
another toy.
Here's hoping you parents
and grandparents and aunts
and uncles out there are
making cherished Christmas
memories for the
youngsters in your life!
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