Rolesville Mayor Seeks Commecial Growth.  Commercial growth means a larger tax base.  That fact is not lost on the Mayor of Rolesville and he wants to do something about it.  Rolesville has been the fastest growing town in North Carolina for the last two years.  Permits for single family homes attest to that fact.  There have been nearly 1,000 of them since 2002.  At the same time there have been only 33 commercial permits issued.  Last year 530 new arrivals called Rolesville home.  That’s a 29 percent increase.  The Mayor would like a 75 percent residential and 25 percent commercial mix.  The U.S. 401 bypass around the southeast side of Rolesville is slated to open in 2013.  That six mile stretch should provide enough commercial sites to provide the town (and the Mayor) with the desire mix.  However, the powers that be will need to try to balance the desire for commerical locations with the need to protect the watershed of the planned Little River Reservoir.  Fun and games a city hall.

You can’t talk about Rolesville without talking about the new Rolesville high school: where it will be, when it will be, and how much will it cost?  Wake school leaders say the school is going to take longer to build and cost more because the county commissioners rejected the site northeast of Raleigh that everyone seemed to think had been chiseled in stone.  If an alternative site isn’t found and agreed to by October the school would be delayed a year and not open until the 2012-2013 school year.  Currently, half of Rolesville’s high school students are going to Wake Forest-Rolesville High and the other half to Knightdale High.  Local residents don’t like that and neither do the residents in the other two areas.  With regard to this issue, the closer it gets to a solution the farther away the end result seems to get.

John Fish (919) 696-3474   Email: Marvmax@mindspring.com   Website: www.JohnFish.com

Raleigh, North Carolina.  Interior Design Classes - Back To School The Fun Way.  During the last two posts I have talked about developing your own home and interior design style by looking and reading magazines and books.  I have just received the latest course catalog from our local technical school - Wake Tech Community College.  Two of the courses they will be offering in the Spring are Interior Design and Feng Shui.  The Interior Design course will be offered from 3/18 through  5/6 of 2008.  Classes are during the evening hours of 6:30 to 8:30 PM and the course cost is $80.  ATTENTION!   If you are a senior citizen the cost is ZIP.  The Feng Shui class will be from 2/5 through 3/18 at the same hours and at the same cost.  Wake Tech courses are in locations all over the ball park.  If you have an interest call 919-866-5800 or check out www.waketech.edu.  For those of you who are too far away to take advantage of the Wake Tech courses there may well be similar courses being offered by a community college in your area.  It is worth the effort to find out.

For those of you who are interested in interior design and decoration, photography, texture, furniture arrangement, photo composition (these ALL work and function together) I again would draw your attention to the many magazines I listed a couple of days ago.  I mentioned the magazine Veranda and I will mention it again.  Look at the furniture arrangement, table arrangement, color elements of the flowers, furniture, rug and ceiling.  The composition and arrangement of the cabinet, table, chairs, chandelier and pictures on the wall.  All of this - on just the cover.  If you want to see how jewelry, furniture, doors, fine china, fireplaces, lighting fixtures, clothing, cabinetry, tile and on and on should be displayed and/or  photographed look, REALLY LOOK at each and every advertisement in the magazine.  PLEASE stop thinking of the adds as someone trying to sell you something!  Most of the adds are truly works of art in their own right.  On page 232 there is an article - Books - DEFINING STYLE - Facets of Design in which three books are recommended:  Elements of Design by Nina Campbell, Kelly Hoppen Home: From Concept to Reality and Cities to Gardens.  The first two deal directly with what I have been talking about.  And then there are the articles within this issue.  If they don’t make your juices boil and give you much food for thought you don’t really have an interest in these things in the first place. 

PEWTER -  The current issue of Early American Life offers cover to cover articles of interest.  However, as many of you have a liking for and interest in pewter I would like to draw your attention to the article - Early Pewter Tableware - that starts on page 58.  I think you will find it to be of considerable interest.

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John Fish (919) 696-3474   Email: Marvmax@mindspring.com   Website: www.JohnFish.com

I have a “Dirty Jobs” candidate for Mike Rowe!  Do you watch ”Dirty Jobs” on the Discovery channel?  It’s a great program but not one to be watched during the supper hour (or CSI any city for that matter).  My “Dirty Jobs” candidate is a white shirt and tie position on the Wake County School Board. The latest figures indicate that just over 5,600 new students are enrolled in Wake County schools this Fall - and they are still coming.  By the time the dust settles Wake County may well be the 19th largest school district in the U.S. overtaking both San Diego and Maryland’s Prince George’s County.  The inscription on the Statue of Liberty says, in part, - “Give us your tired, your poor, you huddled masses yearning to breath free…”.  Let’s see, a suitable inscription above the meeting room of the Wake County School Board might be - ”Y’all GO!”  Trying to figue out where to put all the bodies, existing and new, how to handle school reassignments and the attendent screams of parents when they do, is not something I would wish on my worst enemy (hmmm - then again).  Add to this the bond issue after bond issue for new schools that follows each staggering increase in student enrollments and the tax payer howls that follow them and you have a situation that most certainly qualifies for Mike’s program - - IN SPADES!

John Fish (919) 696-3474   Email: Marvmax@mindspring.com   Website: www.JohnFish.com

Wake Student Population Explodes.  Projections for the Wake County student population are exceeded every year.  This year is no exception.  This year’s projection was 127,767 which is 7,263 more than last year - and - 254 more than projected.  Superintendent Del Burns says that at this rate next year’s enrollment could be 135,000.  In North Carolina, Charlotte-Mecklenburg counties school enrollment is the only one that is larger - but not by much.  Their number is 128,300.

John Fish (919) 696-3474   Email: marvmax@mindspring.com   Web Site: www.JohnFish.com