Tim Forrest: 2025 Holly Springs Town Council Candidate

Tim Forrest shares his vision for Holly Springs' future while highlighting accomplishments like securing $236 million in state infrastructure funding and protecting the town's community character through strategic growth management.

• Currently serving on the Holly Springs Town Council since December 2021
• Retired Army Colonel Engineer with extensive experience in infrastructure planning
• Priorities include smart balanced growth, protecting community character, and improving infrastructure
• Helped secure $236 million in state infrastructure funding to widen NC-55 and improve key intersections
• Advocating for smart growth through UDO revisions to address "missing middle" housing options
• Championing small business development through streamlined processes and dedicated advocacy
• Supporting parks and recreation expansion including Eagles Landing Park construction
• Implementing Intelligent Traffic System (ITS) to improve traffic flow without building new roads
• Expanding water and sewer capacity through regional partnerships for long-term sustainability
• Maintaining second-lowest tax rate in Wake County while providing high-quality services
• Focusing on maintaining Holly Springs' welcoming community atmosphere as the town grows

• Endorsed by Wake County Republican Party & Holly Springs Committee for Responsible Growth

Forrest is one of six candidates running for Holly Springs Town Council, where voters may choose up to three. Early voting begins October 16th, and you'll need a valid ID to vote. Your vote on November 4th will help to shape Holly Springs for generations to come. Make sure you have a plan!

TimForrest4HS.com/info@timforrest4hs.com/Facebook/Instagram

Campaign Finance Report/Campaign Finance Reports for All Candidate Committees

Voter Information (Register, Am I Registered?, Election Information)
Voter Info (Designated Polling Places, Sample Ballots, Registration Status, Voting Jurisdiction, Verify Address and Party Affiliation)
Election Information (Absentee by Mail Voting, Early Voting, Election Day Voting)

Early Voting Locations
October 16-November 1

Wake County Board of Elections Office-1200 N. New Hope Road, Raleigh 27610

October 25-November 1

John M. Brown Community Center-53 Hunter Street, Apex, NC 27502

Avery Street Recreation Center-125 Avery Street, Garner, NC 27529

Herbert C. Young Community Center-101 Wilkinson Avenue, Cary, NC 27513

ELECTION DAY
Tuesday, November 4 from 6:30 AM to 7:30 PM

Chapters

• 0:00 Candidate Conversation Introduction
• 1:38 Meet Tim Forrest: Candidate Introduction
• 5:27 Have you been an active voter, including local elections?
• 5:37 What do you feel is the role of town council member?
• 8:10 What is your involvement within the community and town government, and what qualifications make you prepared for this role?
• 11:10 What’s your long-term vision for the future of Holly Springs?
• 14:27 What are your top three priorities for our community if re-elected?
• 22:22 What is working well in the town today, and where do you see room for improvement?
• 28:00 Do you support the current town budget? Where would you advocate changes, including any adjustments to taxes or spending priorities, if needed for fiscal responsibility?
• 34:02 Oftentimes, it feels like government waits until a specific need is critical before taking action. Do you support being more proactive? How and in what ways specifically?
• 38:27 What new initiatives or attractions would you champion to boost revenue and community pride?
• 41:25 Have you ever disagreed publicly with a current town decision or policy? What was it, and how would you handle a similar situation in office?
• 42:30 When you hear “smart growth”, what does that mean for our town in practical terms?
• 44:25 How would you ensure new development maintains our town’s character while remaining affordable for residents?
• 47:36 Our town is growing rapidly, putting pressure on infrastructure like water and roads, public safety, parks and recreation, and housing affordability. If you had to prioritize only one of these areas this year due to limited funding, which would you choose
• 54:11 Do you feel we already adequately meet the needs of any of these: infrastructure, public safety, parks and recreation, or housing affordability?
• 55:27 As the population grows, what strategies would you prioritize to address roads, utilities, and other infrastructure challenges?
• 59:20 Holly Springs has focused on bringing in biomedical and science-based businesses. How would you balance supporting these businesses and garnering more with some public sentiment that may be skeptical of science and vaccines?
• 1:03:09 As our town grows, farmland faces pressure from development, and some residents struggle to access fresh food. How would you support local farmers, protect farmland, and help ensure everyone has access to healthy, affordable food?
• 1:07:15 Our police sometimes receive requests from outside agencies while also addressing local needs. How would you set priorities for public safety with limited resources?
• 1:09:53 How can the town better support small businesses and connect with their needs?
• 1:11:58 What approaches would you take to foster understanding and collaboration amongst residents with differing perspectives?
• 1:13:49 How will you ensure diverse voices and those most impacted are not only included but truly embraced in decision-making?
• 1:16:41 Do you support a non-discrimination ordinance or policy? Why or why not?
• 1:20:26 Have you gained any endorsements thus far, and if you gain more where might voters find that information?
• 1:22:40 Where can listeners connect with you and learn more about your platform, upcoming events, and ways to get involved?
• 1:23:32 Do you have any final thoughts you’d like to share with those voting in the upcoming election?
• 1:26:06 Lightning Round: Getting to Know Tim
• 1:33:33 Closing Reflections & Voting Info

Transcript

Amanda Benbow Lunn: 0:09

Hello friends, welcome back to the NC Deep Dive podcast. I'm your host, Amanda Benbow Lunn, and today I'm honored to be speaking with Tim Forrest as part of our 2025 Municipal Election Candidate Conversations. Tim is running for the four-year seat on the Holly Springs Town Council. For this race, Tim will be running against Annie Drees, Josh Prizer, Sarah Larson, Joe Cuccurullo and Kara Foster. These races are non-partisan, so there will not be any party affiliation like an R or a D after their name on your ballot. You will be eligible to vote for up to three of these candidates for this seat. On your ballot.

Amanda Benbow Lunn: 0:51

In this election, the top three vote-getters will join Holly Springs Town Council members Danielle Hewetson and Chris DeShazor to make up its five-member body. In these candidate conversations, each candidate will be asked the same questions formulated by our constituent survey, observing community members in person and online, and fine-tuning with AI to keep them as fair, unbiased and open-ended as possible. Without further ado, my friends, let's dive in. Welcome, Tim Forrest, to the North Carolina Deep Dive podcast. You're running for the Holly Springs Town Council. If you want to take a few moments to tell me a little bit about yourself, how long you've lived in the area and what has inspired you to run for re-election.

Tim Forrest: 1:38

Thank you, Amanda, it's good to see you again and thank you for having me on your podcast. I believe it's beneficial to let everyone hear from different mediums and different ways to get the message out and the differences between candidates and how important that is as we go into the election on November 4th Real quick. As you know, many people in the town know it's been my honor to serve in Holly Springs Town Council since December of 2021. I retired from the Army as a Colonel Engineer. I'm a husband. I'm a husband, I'm a father with four boys and I still have two more in high school over here at Holly Springs High School. So I've been well understanding of the Holly Springs school environment and Wake County public school system, and I've spent my life focusing on service, whether it's been in uniform or overseas or right here at home in Holly Springs. I'm very blessed to have a wonderful wife of almost 18 years, almost 20 years total. They've been a great partner as we moved on through this adventure in politics and election cycles.

Amanda Benbow Lunn: 2:26

What has inspired you to run or run again?

Tim Forrest: 2:29

Many things Over the past four years. We've had a lot of success. We really have. We worked hard, the entire council, the entire town staff. As most people know, we have a part-time lobbyist that helps us with the legislature and the DOT and also the legislative action committee that we came out with in 22. It was established here in the town, made up of council members and senior town staff and the mayor. With all that said, over the last four years we've worked hard with colleagues and each other to deliver results.

Tim Forrest: 2:53

Part of those results is recently announced, in May of this year, by the District 5 engineer for NCDOT that we've secured $236 million in state infrastructure funding. It's the largest in the town's history and it's just for the town.

Tim Forrest: 3:07

And many people don't realize that because the town's just now getting the social media pushed out over the next few weeks. But we're modernizing signals. We're widening key roads like 55. We're widening Avent Ferry Phase 2, fixing Sunset Intersection where Sunset and Holly Springs Road and Optimist Farm all meet. That's going to be fixed and part of that funding. We've also expanded water and sewer capacity. We continue to expand it.

Tim Forrest: 3:29

As you know, the Tri-River system with Sanford, fuquay and Pittsboro and some other municipalities have joined so we can secure our water for the future from the Cape Fear River Valley and as we continue that, we've also, as you know, we have Eagles Landing Park. That's under construction now from the bond in 23, overwhelmingly passed by all the voters. We've built more greenways and revamped recreation sites at Womble Jones and many other parks, as well as maintaining our ISO one level rating with the fire and a high quality police department focused on community policing first and all the while supporting major economic development from Amgen, fuji Genentech, as you've recently heard in the announcements, and there's already CSL Secures here, which does a great job, and they're a good town partner as well, and that economic development has kept us and will keep us into the early 2030s if we continue to budget and be fiscally responsible. We're the second lowest tax rate in Wake County for a town, a municipality, and next year we will be the lowest. The town ahead of us, cary, actually raised rates for next year, so we're keeping costs low.

Tim Forrest: 4:21

However, none of this happens by mistakes. It's good planning, it's good budgeting. It's how we have a unified vision, for the most part with council. The school system and public services maintain and keep pace and they're prepared for more growth. So Holly Springs I want it to remain a community where families can put down the roots, where our seniors know they're supported with all different types of people. Backgrounds are welcome always, but I don't think we're done.

Tim Forrest: 5:04

We got to keep up a smart, balanced growth and grow ahead and focus on the future. So the promise I made in 21 is the promise I still keep today. Actually, I've got this as a quote. I'll keep listening, be transparent and continue working across the aisle with everybody to deliver solutions that benefit the entire town. And that's really the background of the why and what I see the future could look like if we maintain a proper governance approach to how we pull the whole town to the next level.

Amanda Benbow Lunn: 5:27

Awesome, have you been an active voter, including in local elections?

Tim Forrest: 5:32

Yes, as far as I'm sure I know, I voted in elections and municipals and yeah, absolutely.

Amanda Benbow Lunn: 5:37

What do you feel is the role of a town council member?

Tim Forrest: 5:40

That's a great question that I think is important to get out there. The town council member has many descriptions. We could talk for probably an hour and a half on what a town council member should do, but I'll keep it as succinct as possible. The town council member you know there's only five of us plus a mayor and we're a board of directors for the town. As you know, the town manager is our CEO, who runs the town for us on the day-to-day cycle.

Tim Forrest: 6:01

We set the vision, the strategy, the ordinances, the policies and it's their job to execute those. In addition, that's our job to network with other municipalities, legislature, state government, other organizations to move the town forward and negotiate A lot of federal, state and other grants that are out there. The more municipalities involved, the higher up the rankings you go. So it's very critical that we work with everybody, from state legislatures to federal, to organizations such as RTA, campo, the Council of Governments, which is now called Central Pines. You know we need to continue all the efforts and all the pressure points to move our town forward. We're not having some good luck by mistake Careful planning, careful consideration, networking, discussing plans and moving forward with those.

Tim Forrest: 6:42

So as a council member.

Tim Forrest: 6:43

We also can't forget, it's cultural. We're all residents, we're your neighbors, we live down the street. Typically, if somebody wants to meet, 99% of the time I can meet with them in a week or so and have a cup of coffee or meet at a park or meet at town hall or wherever they want to meet and talk about.

Tim Forrest: 6:56

what are the issues, are concerns. I've always been open to any group that wants to discuss. I've met with them any town-based group to say what their concerns are and listen to it and see how we can move together. Many times I found it's a lot of like misinformation or unknown information and usually once that's kind of clarified there's a different understanding and a different level of need or different concern from those groups. So a council member is many folds, but most importantly we represent the community at large.

Tim Forrest: 7:22

We owe it to ourselves to talk to anybody that wants to talk to us communicate out what's going on in council as well as make hard, difficult decisions from police to fire, to engineering, to parks and rec, which is a lot of engineering and then over to general town management, town governance. It's not easy Really. In my opinion, you need a real breadth of knowledge of a lot of things, which, with my background in the Army, I have a lot of those already and I've been able to bring a lot of that into the town.

Tim Forrest: 7:49

As far as understanding how things are supposed to work, how things do work, not just like a process or procedure, but how a strategy and a vision, interpreted by policy, interpreted by ordinances, actually affect things on the ground, and that is something that has to be an understanding for a council member. In my opinion, that's the shortest answer I can give you without going off into crazy talk for an hour and a half.

Amanda Benbow Lunn: 8:10

What is your involvement within the community and town government and what qualifications make you prepared to continue this role?

Tim Forrest: 8:18

Yeah, great question. As always, I still participate in scouting. I was a district chair for Southern Wake Scouting America now, which is still the BSA name, which, as well. I get to work with youth and adults throughout Southern Wake as their youth and adults are learning about scouting and growing and hiking and backpacking, and that's been a very much of a blessing and also a way to keep in touch with issues across Southern Wake as well as here in Holly Springs. In addition, I'm the council member for Parks and Rec, the lead council member for Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee. That has allowed me to stay very in tune to the Parks and Rec issues.

Tim Forrest: 8:48

In addition to that, I still serve when I can. I help with the Holly Springs Food Cupboard. I help with different organizations such as Sleep in Heavenly Peace, which builds bunk beds for youth without beds. We have another build coming up in a couple of weeks. So on a Saturday, instead of being out knocking doors, I'll be running some saws and putting stuff together Awesome, and so those are things that I was doing before I was a council member that I still do, as well as the council level. It's a whole different tempo. So I attend the RTA, the Regional Transit Meetings, which about eight different counties and almost all municipalities participate in, and how to bring awareness to the state and federal government for our transportation needs Air, rail, sea, interstates, highways. I participate in the Central Pines Council of Governments, which is made up of 13 counties and almost 30-something municipalities. That actually works toward different areas, such as the new hospital opening at Viridia through US1.

Tim Forrest: 9:37

That was something that Central Pines actually lobbied with the state to develop over the years, which of course would be, as you know, the children's hospital, which will have almost a hundred beds for mental health, not counting all the different specialties it'll have. So those are things that go on behind the scenes, that, while I do write about it every now and then, social media that largely goes fairly unnoticed even though it's out there as well, as also participate in other meetings with Triangle Community Coalition Triangle other.

Tim Forrest: 10:01

Triangle associations that have an impact on our town. Like the Triangle Apartments Association, I go to their meetings to make sure that we can share, as well as meetings with other municipalities. Annually we have meetings with Apex, fuquay and Cary town councils for the most part to help figure out for the official kind of discussion, how we can partner on things such as our recent Cary council meeting.

Tim Forrest: 10:20

We met last week and we actually discussed. They have a lot of excess capacity in one of their wastewater sewer treatment plants already. That would actually benefit part of our town that has no capacity or very limited capacity. So those are discussions that we could easily tie into to still provide services for our residents but at a lower cost, because it's already built and it's excess. So I don't want to talk too much about Cary, but that's one example of multiple engaged. There's no shortage for meetings.

Tim Forrest: 10:43

Some weeks are 15-hour weeks for the town and some are 40 and 50-hour weeks. One of the biggest shocks I find for most new council members is when Friday morning or Friday afternoon at 12, 1 o'clock you get the packet for Tuesday night. It's 1,500 pages and you wanted to go on a family trip that weekend. You have to study that, you have to know it, you have to put the time into it and it shows. And those are things that I think are critical to do and to follow up through and stay connected to the community and how to push forward with the community as well.

Amanda Benbow Lunn: 11:10

What's your long-term vision for the future of Holly Springs?

Tim Forrest: 11:14

I think the long-term vision for Holly Springs is great as we look at the town itself as a whole. We could talk smart growth, we could talk development, we could talk a lot of different topics that go into that, but the reality is is we're at a point where we're in a good glide path. We have a good vision that's been developed over several councils, with only like minor tweaks here and there. We have a good strategy that's focused on good governance, both building economic development, big and small businesses, not just big business.

Tim Forrest: 11:38

We're focused on small businesses too, we're focused on the good parks and rec, the good fire, police, the public services, you know, all the way to garbage collection, and those are all things that we continue to focus on and develop to the next level, but realistically, through growth and development, adding in some of the economic development we have added in. If we can be patient for the economic incentives to wear off the Amgens, the Fujis, the Genentechs, the Crescents, the other life science, bioscience industries, our tax base for the town will almost double in the next seven years without raising a single dime of taxes on a resident. I can't say anything about Wake County. We have nothing to do with Wake County taxes. However, if we can continue to be methodical, patient, continue the plan step-by-step, step-by-step it's existing right now. By the early 2030s, or really late 2030s, parks and greenways will be excellent. There'll be more parks available by the end of the 2030s as we start building on the west side of 55, not just Ingalls Landing Park but others. We need to actually get into Fire Station 4. Land is being purchased this year for construction and, depending on budget cycles 27, potentially to build Fire Station 4 off Sunset. She'll help with our ISO level one rating and service to our town. In addition, by that late 2030s area we'll have all the greenways, a lot of the parks and we'll continue to have a good town as well as developing the downtown.

Tim Forrest: 12:49

So part of that vision, as you know, is you're very tuned into things. Our downtown development plan started off as a village district plan. Now it's just downtown development plan. It's wanting to bring that life to the downtown and it's under the way right now from the initials of Block on Main and other construction items the last seven, eight, nine years that are pivoting us toward a great downtown where people can come relax, socialize, taking Ting Park and focusing on sports entertainment and saying how do we develop that in that area? So, especially since it's on a main street of 55 and with all the facilities already there, how do we increase restaurants or shops or other sporting venues that would like to be a part of that, to grow that as well? So by the late 2030s 2040, I'd say the town will be on a great path understanding, well-built out water, sewer a great position, roads in a much better position. We're never going to build our way out of the road issue, but we will be much better off in the next few years with all the money from the state.

Tim Forrest: 13:39

And I see a town that's vibrant, welcoming of all, loving, with the capacity to stay focused on the town and the next level. So the Council of 2040 can focus on other topics. Do we need more stuff? I fully agree. I'm excited about the potential formation of an Arts Council here. We need that.

Tim Forrest: 13:55

I'm excited that there's some push and discussion now across many different groups for, like, a Performing Arts Center. Those are all things we need as our culture side grows as well. To service the culture side, we definitely need the farmer's market to grow and a building. We definitely need all these things that do cost money but over time they can happen if the town's wishes for that to happen, if the residents wish for that to happen. So those are things that I look at and the vision I see is a good town by the mid 2030s, because a lot of the roads would be improved by then, and then by 2040, I see a great town. I do.

Amanda Benbow Lunn: 14:26

Okay, what are your top three priorities for our community if reelected?

Tim Forrest: 14:31

Great question. It's kind of like, you know, almost like at your own house. Right, you have a budget, you have so much money, you have the top things you want to get done that year, whether it's a vacation or whatever it is. Or maybe you have a 16-year-old or somebody going to college needs a vehicle. Then you have all the other stuff that has to go on as well, right, like you've got to pay utility bills, you've got to pay insurance, you've got to do a lot of things. So same thing, but on a much larger scale. The town, smart and balanced growth has to happen. It's been okay since then, but we need to revise the UDOs again. We need to reanalyze how we're doing that, because we're missing, in my opinion, the missing middle, and we have to get more after the missing middle, like your townhomes, things of that nature when we revised it previously great intentions, great results, but we really didn't emphasize the missing middle. We need to come back with the missing middle.

Tim Forrest: 15:13

And that's not lost on me. That's just one aspect of smart and balanced growth. At the same time, thanks to the UDO we currently have in place, from the time a developer walks in the door of town hall to makes it to council, only 20% of those developments get approved. And the ones that do get approved, they meet a very high standard that we set out in 22. Curb and gutter they pay their own water, sewer connections Prater 22, the town was helping on that. They pay for connections to the greenway or if it's too far away from the nearest connection, they do a fee in lieu to go for a future connection there. They have to improve their road frontage. If it requires a stoplight by the traffic impact analysis, they put in a stoplight. We don't play anymore. Holly Springs needs the developers to build for their development, not cost the taxpayer money for that development, and that has slowed our development down to 20%. I know you're well aware we've never talked about this, but I know you're extremely plugged in.

Tim Forrest: 16:00

There's state laws that say you can't stop development unless you have a major reason. Well, one of the benefits in 23, before the election cycle, we actually passed the water policy because we recognize, with the growth of the town, we need to protect our water and our sewer system, and that's actually approved by state law. And so we say you've got to pass this water policy test if we're going to allow you in one of the buckets for it to work. And so we've taken the remaining water that we have available, which is plenty, plenty of water right now and will be thanks to planning. However, until we finish the connections to Cape Fear, until we finish the development, we want to be very careful with that. So our water policy is extremely critical. If you want to build, then you have to go above and beyond to get the criteria to go into this bucket, and that necessarily doesn't mean they're building their frontage. They could be doing more things. So the water policy actually helps that as well.

Tim Forrest: 16:47

And I'm going way off base back to your original question of the three, but for smart, balanced growth there's like several key factors in there that make it smart and balanced and good for Holly Springs. That I think I wanted to hit on. Secondly, I think we have to protect our community character so it's not just the small town feel that's important, Like when I walk through downtown people say hello, I've never seen that person in my life, but they're friendly. I like it. We do that also with the design standards for downtown and around town, making sure they meet that kind of warming feeling, keeping building height kind of low, so we're not building skyscrapers that just take away from character. Green space preservation One of the things I'm excited about right now. We actually had a workshop last night where we talked about revising the UDO that covers our landscape, our greenscape, and was a unified consensus of we need to protect as much as we can, a by law and B that makes sense.

Tim Forrest: 17:33

I've been a part of building base camps overseas, repairing bridges and cities in Iraq and Afghanistan and Syria. I know what it looks like when you don't pay attention to your environment.

Tim Forrest: 17:41

I know what it looks like when you just think it's oh, it's great, Just tear down all the trees, it's fine. No, no, it's not fine. You have to protect the environment. So, with that said, as we revise that UDO chapter, my intent is to make sure that's a very well-written chapter and it passes muster to protect our environment as much as possible. We may not be able to stop development, but we can make sure that we build in the green space tree canopies, the things we need and we can hold on to to keep the Tree City USA designation, but also for future generations. That's the reality.

Tim Forrest: 18:08

It's about the future to me. What are we going to leave in 2040, 2050? What do we want to leave through all this growth? Walkable areas We've already opened more greenways in the last four years than they opened the previous four years. We've got to keep that up. It does help transportation, it provides walkability too, and I just want to see that continue as well. But for the third, leading into transportation and infrastructure will be the third priority, to make sure it's I guess the old way of saying it would be called done well you know it's not very technical or, you know, doesn't really refer to the two master's degrees.

Tim Forrest: 18:34

I hold to say it that way. However, it has a point. You know we have it done well and the $236 million that the state has now allocated us through the TIP process that the legislature approved, you know, to modernize 55, six lane, you know, only through Holly Springs, not Fuquay, not Apex, only through Holly Springs. There's a lot of reasons they couldn't do that that are structural, but they're going to go in six lane and then we pass through by where the target is right, and also by Walmart and Main Street in that area, right, so the stoplights will come out, there'll be pass-throughs six lanes across, but there'll be little exit ramps, not like big interstate size, but little exit ramps. You go off and you can keep traffic flowing freely is the design. So that'll actually greatly improve.

Amanda Benbow Lunn: 19:12

So does that take away the no left turn, U-turn type deals?

Tim Forrest: 19:17

It'll take away most of them. There's one left in the design, but we're still just now in the design process. In the concept there was one left. However, comma, let's see what the final design looks like and that's the one we've got to make sure makes sense to leave it there or not leave it there, because you know, we've been living here a long time. We were here when there were just lights and you turned left and it was fine. So then of course NCDT owns 55, so they put in the U-turns everywhere and we all have our opinions about those. I'm sure ours would agree.

Tim Forrest: 19:47

But it's going to modernize signals, intersections, even for your road, phase two, phenomenal under transportation infrastructure, four lane, median, divided. And one thing I'm excited about since I've lived here, my kids have walked to school, to Hollygrove, elementary, middle and high school. Of course now they drive to high school, whatever. But as I look at that, the crosswalk at Cass Holt, avent Ferry and where the Cape Side Road comes out, part of all this infrastructure changes and a part of the woods development going in down there, 55 and up, realigns that intersection to a true four-way and it puts in a state-of-the-art crosswalk. And I'm going to for the crosswalk itself. It's going to be all four sides, not just one side like it is now.

Tim Forrest: 20:32

However, I met with homeowners from Holly Glen that didn't like the property because it wasn't improving the crosswalk. So we met, we drew it out. I contacted the Crosswalk Safety Institute and had them revise it to a plan. I sent that plan right to the developer and said this is the one I'd like to see. And the developer sent back to the town and they're drawing saying we can build this. And everybody was like oh, that's great. I'm like it'll be the safest crosswalk in the state of North Carolina, outside one in Charlotte near South Point, which is already built that way. I found out later. I found out later. So I'm excited about that. But, more importantly, we need to do more. So there's a lot of good things that are finally moving, but government doesn't move at the speed of a business or corporation. If I want to put mulch down, I go to Lowe's, I come back and put mulch down. The town wants to put mulch down, takes a week to get a purchase order. Got to make sure the price is negotiated, which we all want.

Tim Forrest: 21:20

But it does take time. And then they go pick up what they need to do, the landscaping. Now personify that a thousand percent and say construction of Holly Springs Road. You know pipes, wires, overhangs, moving of utilities by Duke and the gas company, and you know it just takes time to build. So all this money coming in is great. Take about 18 months of design work. In late 26, at the earliest probably spring 27, we'll start to see construction. But it's finally moving.

Tim Forrest: 21:43

And this was not being worked on prior to 22. I credit the Legislative Action Committee. I credit the getting an expert part-time lobbyist in that knew where to go and who to talk to and how to streamline it for us Because we were like the small town who never could, and all of a sudden we're now the big town that could and most residents still probably aren't aware we're the 24th largest town in the state now, with 54,000 residents.

Amanda Benbow Lunn: 22:04

Wow, it's grown so much.

Tim Forrest: 22:06

It's huge. So how do we stay ahead of it versus go backwards? And that's where you got to look at that. Anyway, I think I over-answered your question, but those are the kind of the top three priorities to make sure they integrate well. Okay, and in the background everything else still has to work.

Amanda Benbow Lunn: 22:19

That it does. You've answered this a little bit, but what is working well in the town today and where do you see room for improvement?

Tim Forrest: 22:27

You know honestly, I think social media would tell you economic development is working well and it is. Our team in economic development is phenomenal. They're well plugged in and they're doing a great job. We need to improve small business. We need to improve their ability to come in and get assistance and help, because a lot of them can't afford to buy and afford high-powered land use attorneys to come into the town to figure stuff out. They can't afford to spend tons of money on commercial real estate agents who help them do X, y and Z. So what I'd like to see in this next term is revamping the small business side of the house, creating an advocate we already have an advocate in economic development but,

Tim Forrest: 22:59

retooling that same position to be their on-the-ground advocate. Let's say, michelle at Bombshell I'm sure you know Michelle Michelle comes in and she's like, hey, I want to expand Bombshell. Well, she can go meet with that one individual, that one, what I call belly button, and then that individual can walk them through the steps they need with planning and zoning, with parks and rec and all the other entities you have to check off with with any new expansion or construction. So it's not so horrible Right now. I'm sure, michelle and Mommy sharing the story with you because we talked about it recently in the small business meeting we had at Mama Mia's last week the reality is that she was doing it herself and there was 16 people from the town on the team's call with just her and it's just overwhelming.

Tim Forrest: 23:36

So in that one small, small, small example, we need an advocate who's already on staff but just repurposed to be the belly button for small businesses, because we need small businesses to grow and foster in this town. We have a lot of people moving here and we need more small businesses. I mean, the one thing that I thought would be taboo to ever say in my entire life is we need more gas stations. We need one or two between 12 Oaks and Carolina Springs. I want them to have charging stations for the future, right, but we need those.

Tim Forrest: 24:02

So, and we're working on that. We have one property recently approved that had a gas station on it, over on Target. But the reality is that we have small business needs. We could say we need more dry cleaners, we need more restaurants, we need more cleaning services of all things. Speaking with some local cleaning agents, they're maxed out If they can fit somebody new in. They're usually like a roster they can call of people to add, which is great, but then there's a lot of people that may need that service. We also need to focus on our senior community. It's growing Our 55 and up, realistically probably 60, 65 and up. Microtransit is one of the reasons we're bringing that on board in 26. However, the reality is that we've improved and added services with Parks and Rec, but we need to continue to look at that every year to see how we can make that better and how we can bring it closer to the pockets. So, going well. I probably glossed over that too much, but I think police and fire are on a great track.

Tim Forrest: 24:47

If you look at the police report they provided a few months ago to the town and their police update, you know we have several areas that are actually reducing thanks to the license plate reader program that was brought on board. It's actually helping us stop some activities before they start. I'll just put it that way Community policing, building trust with our residents that they're going to do the right thing and when they do come out they're phenomenal. So a police officer right now when they come to Holly Springs, which we're about the top two or three highest paid in the area for our police officers, which is great because we want to attract and maintain and retain good talent. However, we also offer them classes. We expect all our police officers to have their EMT license and fire department for that matter. But EMT license we all want them to get their. It's called CRT, but it has to do with the psychological standpoint of helping others when they're in like a mental health crisis. We send them this training. It costs money but it's in the budget. But we want to maintain that level of. They're all EMTs because they can be the first one on the scene. They got their little blue EMT bag in the back of their vehicle in the back of their out and start first aid or life-saving measures. To a degree, the fire department has the same gear on their vehicles as well, because there might be an EMT lag for the ambulance, and those are things I think are going very well. I don't know of anybody in town that's really complained a whole lot about police and fire. They do well.

Tim Forrest: 25:54

Parks and Rec's come a long way. I'll credit the Parks and Rec senior leadership team with the ideas of partnering with Wake County Public Schools to use the tracks after hours, to use some of the indoor space after hours, and when they're out for breaks they partner with HOPE to use some indoor and outdoor space over there for certain activities. They have to juggle so many activities. Tens of thousands of kids just collectively as a whole go through our Parks and Rec program every year and that takes a lot of coordination. And even when Eagles Landing Park is built, it'll be the first park built since 2011 bond and we're still going to be behind the eight ball for a town of 54,000.

Tim Forrest: 26:26

So that's got to be a priority as we look in the next few years without doing a bond. How do we build that into the budget, as some of the incentives are coming out of the economic development to take care of the residents already here and raising families here anyway. So I think there's a lot of things going well. I give credit to a lot of the senior town staff for the way they've handled themselves. I think of creative, out-of-the-box ways to provide services. The last thing I would say is the 311 app have you downloaded it yet.

Amanda Benbow Lunn: 26:47

I do have it, but I have not had to use it yet

Tim Forrest: 26:50

that's good.

Tim Forrest: 26:51

So the 311 app is awesome. I think most people know I walk fairly early in the morning. It's usually dark out when I start. But I was walking near the Carl Dean Greenway, headed to Bass Lake, and there was a tree down after a storm the night before I pulled out my phone, pulled out the 3-1-1 app, took a picture of it. Of course I already preloaded your name and information because you have an account and I just typed in TREEDOWN and it was too big for me to move and I was just like TREEDOWN on the Carl Dean Greenway and it automatically geolocates it with a longitude, latitude, grid, coordinate, perfect.

Tim Forrest: 27:19

I, the utilities and maintenance guys know. Four hours later they sent a note saying it was gone. I was walking over there the next day. It was gone. But the 311 app has brought the town together beyond our expectations. So when you file hey, there's a pothole in my street and you take a picture and you upload it and I really encourage everyone to check the 311 app out you take a picture, you locate, run over one and report it, or a resident finally gets a hold of the right person to do it. They don't have to do that now. 311 interlocks the town, so it's had a great result and that's a very low cost thing to do. Anyway, I think I over-answered your question again, let's move on.

Amanda Benbow Lunn: 27:59

I guess this this is the deep dive so you can't over-answer. Do you support the current town budget? Where would you advocate changes, including any adjustments to taxes or spending priorities, if needed, for fiscal responsibility?

Tim Forrest: 28:13

In general, the budget is on a good track. That's my belief. Now, if you say, where do we need to tweak? We don't need to increase the town budget because that would create increasing taxes, and I don't think anybody in this town wants to increase taxes. In my conversations with the Food Cupboard and other organizations in town, we have a lot of our residents that are really pinched, really pinched, and they're having to use the services of the town and the services the county provides to all residents to just get month to month by. So I think raising taxes right now for any reason unless it had something to do with police or fire and even then it's got to be extremely important we need to really not increase any taxes. So, with that said, I think we need to keep investing in the intelligent traffic system. Have you heard of the ITS system?

Tim Forrest: 28:52

I have, but feel free to share, just in case some of the listeners have not Super it started a few years ago and it's bringing real-time signal timing and smart technology to all of our traffic lights and roads. For those not aware, 20 years ago long before your podcast or I was even anywhere thinking of ever being on council the council at the time buried town fiber everywhere in town. People don't realize this town on fiber and only a couple of municipalities in North Carolina did that or have done that. And of course, we sublet some of our space to Google and Ting, so we actually make money back that way. That helps the town budget, keep taxes low, because it doesn't take away from the bandwidth the town needs. That's just a shameless plug, for that was great planning 20 years ago. It's benefited our town today. So the intelligent traffic system is currently being upgraded.

Tim Forrest: 29:35

You may remember about two, three months ago a lot of lights on Avent Ferry Road and Piney Well, bond and 55 were kind of going crazy as they updated all these new traffic signal boxes that control it to tie them into the fiber and it didn't go well and it took them longer than it should have to get it all working well again.

Tim Forrest: 29:51

So now it's working very well about the same as it was before, a little bit better. However, the ITS system will be online. March April is the estimate For when it should be fully online. They'll have an operator that looks over all of our cameras in town and as traffic backs up, they'll keep certain signals going left or certain signals going right longer to encourage you to move that direction to other roads that may be open. As you know, we're limited on our pass-through roads, so the ITS system will increase that signalization and help everybody move on. When it's fully up and running around March April, we'll see more of a benefit without building a single road to do that. There around March April, we'll see more of a benefit without building a single road to do that. There's several estimates on how much it's going to impact.

Tim Forrest: 30:27

I'm just going to wait and see what it does before I talk about that. I'd hate to say it today and then next summer. Well, tim said you know. However, I've been impressed with it so far because I'm seeing all the updates, I'm seeing the demonstrations, I'm seeing how it's supposed to work. But by 2026, drivers should see major improvements in how the signals are responding to traffic flow. Reducing congestion is the intent, and improving safety by that as well.

Tim Forrest: 30:47

Right now, there's been way too many accidents on 55. Most are from out of the area when you look into the details of it, and they just don't know our roads, and so the ITS system will help with that. Expanding 55 off-topic will help that, and so I encourage everyone to check it out. The town has a good website for the ITS system that they maintain. It tells you what it is and how it works. Ultimately it will be.

Tim Forrest: 31:06

The goal is for it to be AI operated with a human oversight. So initially it'll be a person you know changing and doing based on what they think should happen, and then later, six months a year, it'll be fully automated, with a human watching it all to make sure it's working the way it's supposed to. So that's one thing that'll benefit in 26 and later toward 27,. That'll benefit our traffic situation ideally. So, with that said, I wouldn't mess with that in the budget. Circling back to your original question, I would actually, in this last budget cycle council, made it real clear we're not adding positions. You might get two for people but, what positions can we repurpose?

Tim Forrest: 31:37

In other words, if you had a position that just stays vacant, nothing's happening, can't hire that person, or they're just not needed, so you haven't hired them right now that we can repurpose and the town did that because there's money already allocated for that.

Tim Forrest: 31:47

So the town did that in this last budget cycle. They only added two positions the Eagles Landing Park coming online. They needed some assistance there. But the reality is this budget is good for police and fire, it's good for Parks and Rec, it's good for the town and that's critical. We do need to tweak it again over the next year as microtransit is coming online, which is funded in this budget. We need to look at that how it works. We just had a great, great briefing on it yesterday as we get the final details nailed down for it during the workshop. It was great. I'd recommend anybody watching that, because you can click right to the section on microtransit and just watch the video. I love the way our website's set up and as we, so we need to watch that. The reason why I say that is we need to make sure those costs don't jump up on us. We need to make sure it's held to a certain dollar amount and we provide certain services In time after we have some data three months, six months, a year, whatever seems appropriate.

Tim Forrest: 32:34

we need to look to see how can we expand that while keeping the cost low. That'll be a question that we'll need to address a year from now, whoever's on council, and there's areas we need to tweak and go over. But it comes down to the eaches. It looks at each line item, which is painful. It's very painful, you know. Thank goodness I had my MBA at two graduate level accounting courses, so you know it's painful to go to each line and see how it works and see how it implements.

Tim Forrest: 32:57

And anything that somebody says new, what's the cost of that? You know, if somebody said we need to raise taxes to build more roads, no, we got more roads coming, but the state money that we already pay taxes on. Somebody says, hey, we need free this. Well, it's not free because the town's paying for it. What's that going to cost? It doesn't make sense to raise taxes on a town that's feeling the heat from Wake County and other everything the grocery stores to car insurance, to homeowner's insurance. I mean, we're being squeezed everywhere. So is it the right time? I don't think so. So anything new that pops up for this next council. Hopefully I'm there for it. I'm sure I will be. It needs to be well thought out.

Tim Forrest: 33:30

It doesn't need to be a political agenda. It needs to be what's best for the entire town and that's what I believe in my heart. I spent 31 years in the military. I owned a small business for several years and got to sell it. Good things, it's. What's good for the whole is my Nobody. Spirited discussions with council members absolutely. But no one's ever told me how to vote, ever, and that will not happen again the next four years. So I don't believe in partisan politics at the town level. What do we need to do for that budget? What do we need to do for the vision, the strategy, the policies, updating UDOs, and how do we move the town forward with priorities that are already here?

Amanda Benbow Lunn: 34:02

Oftentimes it feels like government waits until a specific need is critical before taking action. Do you support being more proactive and if so, how and in what ways specifically?

Tim Forrest: 34:12

Great, great statement. That is true NCDOT. As you know, they have a philosophy of bring them in, then we'll build it. We've seen how that's worked. We don't have to go down the road. However, we didn't take that for the answer in 22, 23, 24. We said how do we become proactive, how do we ensure they understand the situation on the ground? And it took a while, took a hot minute, took many different levers to pull, many different conversations, many different right things to happen. But they came out and did a study in early 24. At that time, 75% of the traffic on 55 is from out of our city Fuquay, angier, lillington, all that. It's not Holly Springs residents on 55 by and large 25 percent is sure.

Tim Forrest: 34:49

With that said, once we got them out to do the study, they did the study. They're like, oh, biscuits, the way the growth of the area is running. Now we had them look at the whole area because our UDO is not the same UDO that's been used by Fuquay, angier, lillington, harnett County, parts of JoCo that come through 55, just south of us in Sanford that come up US 1 area into the Holly Springs area. Their UDOs are not that tight. They're building and building and building and so, based on their projected numbers, based on our projected numbers, the state's like oh, this is a problem and we need to build sooner than later. So instead of being built in 2040, the expansion of 55, they moved it up to the next few years. Right, design build, all that will be finished by 29, probably fingers crossed, but instead of being built in 2040.

Tim Forrest: 35:29

And that's one example of how we got ahead of it. But we've also been proactive everywhere In the town. We asked the town to look what's the vision for Parks and Rec? As you know, we need more stuff. We can go down that road or not, but we need more stuff. And so this is what they envision. And they actually have the Parks and Rec Advisory Committee working with their planner, because the Parks and Rec Committee is appointed from all over the town looking and seeing where do we need to put future parks, especially in West Holly Springs, west of 55.

Tim Forrest: 35:51

The police department. It's because of future planning and asking the right questions about strategy. Fire Station 3 has a little cubbyhole for police to work in. Now It'll be a law enforcement center. They go in there, they plug in the laptop, they get some work done, meet people there, versus them driving all the way to the law enforcement center, especially as the town continues to grow. Fire Station 4 will have a little substation inside of it. More than likely is the plan. So the police will have a place there to work. So, place there to work. So we have one building we paid for, but then yet. But the police don't have to always go back to the center.

Tim Forrest: 36:17

They can start doing zone work which cuts down on gas, which comes down to drive time, which cuts down a lot of things. But until those questions were asked in 23, that was not a thing. It was build it and then, well, we'll just keep it. It wasn't there, whether it's parks and recs, police, fire department, obviously is under a right cloud. Path we path. We've turned a lot of corners in the last four years to look at vision and strategy. And how do we do this without killing the taxpayer and how do we do this systematically but yet keeping up good services? We don't want to be like NCDOT and then say let's build it later.

Tim Forrest: 36:46

Water, as you probably remember maybe not, I'm assuming In 21, I ran on water In 21, I said we got water issues. We don't control development. We don't control how we use our water. This could be a serious problem. You know there was a significant drought here for many years. That finally cleared up last decade. It's not to say it's not going to come back again, right? How do we prepare for the future and future growth? And that's something I did take in and say in 22,. I said I want to work water. Just so happened. Our water people agreed we do need to look at water, you know. And other council members agreed with me yeah, once the problem set was laid out, they could see the problem set and that's when the water policy came out.

Tim Forrest: 37:20

The tri-river, joining with Sanford and other municipalities, came as an opportunity. We took it, building a pipe joint pump station with Fuquay over off Rex road that goes all the way down to Cape Fear river. That's where all that came in and it is expensive. It is, However, on the development side of the house, our fees for developer. Let's just say to build a single apartment building complex for water. We have a few million dollars in fees for that complex to pay. That goes back into the water specifically to help over time try and keep those costs low. We're very fortunate the legislature in 24 put in 33 million to that project on behalf of us in Fuquay, which also is our cost as well, came out of the legislature. In the long term that'll help keep costs down for that project. But looking forward, the water is the biggest thing, Transportation is the biggest thing and that we've actually looked forward on Police and fire absolutely, that's easy to do.

Tim Forrest: 38:04

You know my time in the military, we always had to plan ahead and look ahead. The higher up you got in the command structures, the more you did care about the future and did plan the future and did look ahead. There's training, human resources, equipping what do they need? And that's the same thing I use at the town. So I just ask questions, and by asking questions I'm not trying to get a specific answer.

Tim Forrest: 38:20

I just want to see what they have to say from their point of view. And next thing, you know you got a good plan in front of you. After several months can get together and work it Excellent.

Amanda Benbow Lunn: 38:27

What new initiatives or attractions would you champion to boost revenue and community pride?

Tim Forrest: 38:33

Oh man, we got a lot. We can talk for two, three hours on that. I'm just excited that we are a welcoming community. My neighborhood's fairly multicultural. My kids, since they were five, they skin their knee on a sidewalk. One of the moms or dads are out there in a heartbeat, doesn't matter who it is. They're out there saying are you okay, you're all right? Can I clean that off for you? Can I walk you home? Expand that around town. I hear stories like that around our town all the time, all the time, doesn't matter who the neighbors are. How do you do that? You can't recreate that, as you may not know. So I'm the weird oddball on town council. I say that because I grew up in affordable housing it was called subsidized housing back in gonna age myself at the late 80s. So I grew up there and when I was 17, I knew I needed to join the military to try and have a different way. Have a different way.

Tim Forrest: 39:13

My parents stayed there for like a year or so. They got on their feet and they had some bad situations come up and they worked through it and they eventually got back on their feet and moved on and that's the nature of what that should be, in my opinion. I was very fortunate that happened to me, so I did not grow up in neighborhoods like we have here in Holly Springs but because I didn't, I really appreciate them. I think they're awesome and amazing and whether it's Sunset Morgan Park, braxton Village, autumn Park, pick a neighborhood. I've heard stories like that from all the people and I'll get back to answering your question. On the town side, we did approve the Festival Street to be developed this next budget cycle. I think about $500,000 or $600,000. I think. Going into it, redo the street, make it accessible. Potentially we're going to use the old police annex which is now condemned. Potentially take it down, put in like a mini amphitheater there maybe that idea is floating.

Tim Forrest: 39:55

It's not a done deal yet. However, to give us more space to do stuff, we have Suck Farm, which is phenomenal, but it has a limit on people, right, but really make the downtown vibrant, exciting and welcoming. At the same time, we need to continue to develop our sports and recreation programs to include crickets, more programs for multicultural diversity as well. Just in general, we also need to bring in more programs that allow expressions.

Tim Forrest: 40:17

And then, just like in the last four years, I was one of the champions of Christy Bennett, while in her short time as counsel for Interfaith Festival and, of course, the International Food Festival, I fully supported Christy on. So those are things we brought on four years ago that are still flourishing and doing well. So I welcome everyone to come out, everyone to reserve their downtown space, everyone to reserve park space and enjoy. On the corner of Holly Springs we have a mosque that from time to time have events around town.

Tim Forrest: 40:41

And I'm glad you know, we have a lot of different religions, people, ethnicities, backgrounds. Welcome to your thing, our holiday parade. You can see it the best you know because almost everybody comes out for that right. Not everybody, but almost all the groups come out for that and you can see how diversified our town is and I embrace that. You'll never see me argue against any group, except unless a hate group. That's a different issue. Any group coming out to say, hey, we want to have a parade a festival, whatever.

Tim Forrest: 41:03

Okay, great, we want to reserve the shelter at Womble Park to do an event. Great, don't forget your culture, don't forget your history. Be welcome in the town, be a part of the town. But I'm good for that's a long answer. From Parks and Rec to community service, to neighbors, to welcoming groups. That's probably the shortest way I can even answer that question. But remember I saw that in the military too. The military is real welcoming of all groups. I saw that a lot.

Amanda Benbow Lunn: 41:25

Have you ever disagreed publicly with a current town decision or policy and if so, what was it and how would you handle a similar situation while in office?

Tim Forrest: 41:36

I'm sure I have. I'm not known to. I don't think my reputation on council has been very divisive. What's good for the entire town is what we should keep focus on. So I did disagree with Aaron Wolf on some of his policies back in the day, but I did it very politely and respectfully about the whole of the town and that's the way I focus that.

Tim Forrest: 41:49

I think the non-discrimination ordinance is one that I didn't vote for. We did do a non-discrimination resolution that I signed. It says everybody's welcome in this town and with that said, the results of the. Now that we have a couple of years after the non-discrimination ordinance, the results of it, according to the Wake County Attorney's Office, are pretty much abysmal and the report's horrible. I can go over the numbers with you if you want.

Amanda Benbow Lunn: 42:06

There's a question later. If you want to go into it, then.

Tim Forrest: 42:10

Yeah, that's fine we and a good thing, because it's actually worth talking about the actual how's it been working the last two years, three years, and that's good to talk about. So when we look at all that, I think we're on the right track.

Amanda Benbow Lunn: 42:20

I do.

Tim Forrest: 42:21

And if I disagree with somebody, I do it politely, constructively and based on what I believe to be factual statements not emotion, passion or partisan politics?

Amanda Benbow Lunn: 42:30

Okay, when you hear smart growth, what does that mean for our town in practical terms?

Tim Forrest: 42:35

Oh, we've hit that topic a lot. You know Smart Growth theme. What do we need to add? We've talked about transportation, the ITS system. We talked about microtransit already. We've talked about, well, proactive planning. We kind of touched on a little bit in a way Requiring infrastructure improvements to be in place before or concurrent with major development approvals, not behind major approvals or major developments or major changes in the road systems. So proactive planning has to maintain and sustain Intersection school safety.

Tim Forrest: 43:03

In the last four years I tried to really get a school crossing guard program up and running, especially in the Holly Grove and High Springs elementary areas. That was met with some resistance. However, I'm not done with that. I think we need to continue that. We need crossing guards and we need improved safety crosswalks, especially around all our schools. Now that our traffic volumes on these roads are increasing, I think we have to get after that. Our intersections now are being built to a high standard and they have been for the last few years. You can see that. Just drive around town, the newer ones coming in. Infrastructure and smart growth I think we touched on that. So I don't want to go too far down that rabbit hole again. But we've got to continue linking neighborhoods and parks and services and downtown and crosstown areas and ultimately it's fiscal accountability.

Tim Forrest: 43:44

We need to make sure we're spending our dollars wisely, not be afraid to ask the hard questions about what do we spend our money on and how. We also got to maximize grants which there are not that many right now we're working it, but not that many and then maximize state and regional dollars that we can get, especially across coordination with other municipalities and counties and agencies to increase our chances for higher funding ratios with that. So when I think smart growth, it's balance, protecting community character, transportation, housing balance we talked about that already Economic development, fiscal responsibility, community engagement and sustainability and future planning, as we mentioned earlier, the UDOs, rewriting them, protecting green space, tree canopies, while yet maximizing benefits for the town in each development.

Amanda Benbow Lunn: 44:24

Okay, how would you ensure new development maintains our town's character while remaining affordable for residents?

Tim Forrest: 44:31

Affordability is driven by market costs and I have several residents that joke all the time that they don't know if they can move to Holly Springs today and because the cost has gotten high. Some of that we have very little control over after it's built. To say that. You know how do we protect the community character? Our design requirements for new subdivisions have to be a certain way. We encourage certain materials to be used. Sometimes we require it, depending on what part of the ordinance you're looking at. We do green space preservation. We want more mixed use where it's feasible and smart. Just can't put mixed use everywhere. We want more walkable areas, not just greenways but around communities. You know they have sidewalks, cover gutters or greenway that maybe connects two sides of a neighborhood.

Tim Forrest: 45:11

You know that example. How do we balance that with our infrastructure to keep costs low? And ultimately, if I remember the statistics right, if we continue our build out where we need to and our neighbors are building a lot faster than we are but as they're building more mixed use, more other housing, single family housing, townhomes, apartments, whatever eventually the cost will start to come down sometime around 2029 to 2032. That's the estimate. When I say come down, it might be like a 10% drop, but that's the best forecast I've seen. But that's relying on more housing options to be available, which only comes through construction. Right now it'd be infeasible economically the tax base to try and subsidize any housing and I grew up in subsidized housing. I know the benefits of it, but they're not here yet.

Tim Forrest: 45:54

They're not here.

Tim Forrest: 45:55

They don't live here and I don't want to raise taxes just to do that. That doesn't make sense in 2025 or 2026, in my opinion, at all Doesn't make sense to raise taxes in the next eight years. In my opinion, however, we have to tie it all together and it can be done in phases. You can improve roads and infrastructure as they're building a development to make it make sense at the end, or we just continue our 20% approval rankings where it makes sense and continue our long-term analysis on where we need to have water sewer go, where Duke Energy needs to build more substations for the future, and which is actually something we're working on. Another UDO revision.

Tim Forrest: 46:27

We're doing right now is looking forward. Where do we need to have regional pump stations, sewer stations, gravity fed stations, as well as?

Tim Forrest: 46:34

where do we need?

Tim Forrest: 46:34

more power, like the Northwest or Southwest gateways that are underdeveloped because they don't really have anything. And how do we do that? And all that takes years and time. One thing I do like about the current mentality on council and the senior staff is, in my opinion, is we don't want to overbuild and not be able to take care of the infrastructure and, honestly, we want to build the right stuff. If you want to build in Holly Springs, great, it's a great place to build. But, a you can pay our fees, so it helps offset our other costs. And then, b, we want you to build the right stuff. We want, whether it's townhomes, mixed use it makes sense, and the zoning is there, single family or whatever.

Tim Forrest: 47:07

So economic development, I think, is still going to continue in the life science, bio-science area, and that's great. It's all in one part of the town, it's where it's all going. And the NCDOT is building another exit off US 1 specifically for Friendship, which will alleviate off our roads as well. I didn't mention that earlier because it's not part of the $236 million, but it is a funding that was guaranteed to Amgen Fuji. They built Because Amgen Fuji, they didn't want just the one exit off US 1, the two-lane road. They wanted a major exit built for them, which is great. That actually helps us helps the town Perfect.

Amanda Benbow Lunn: 47:36

Our town is growing rapidly, putting pressure on infrastructure like water and roads, public safety, parks and recreation and housing affordability. If you had to prioritize only one of these areas this year, due to limited funding, which would you choose and how would you communicate that decision to residents?

Tim Forrest: 47:52

Wow, great question. I'll try to be as succinct as possible. In 2020, we were here, the census was like 42,000, some change right. Today, based on certificate occupancies, we're over 54,000, and the 2030 census is looking to be at least 61,000 or more. Before I forget, I'd like all listeners to know some of the newer developments you've seen was approved in prior councils, because it takes about five to seven years to build a development, or a little bit longer. So some of the bigger developments were approved 2020 and earlier.

Tim Forrest: 48:18

So just as you're looking around town, kind of keep that in the back of your mind. You know which one was actually approved in the current council and which was actually approved prior to, Not your question. I felt like the listeners need to hear it.

Amanda Benbow Lunn: 48:28

Still good information.

Tim Forrest: 48:29

It is, and you're right. Our community faces the opportunity and obligation to drive growth in tandem with positive community and environmental outcomes. You know, to drive that success we need to embolden and continue our unique town atmosphere. We need to encourage it. Everyone is welcome period, pure and simple, enhancing residential and non-residential development at the same time. If the development's right for our town and it has benefits for our town not just the development, but for our town okay, and then for non-residential development, your economic development, your small businesses, your I think we have another company similar to Flytrex looking to come in.

Tim Forrest: 49:00

It's not a done deal yet they're looking to come this way. I mean, you know, as we do the non-residential development, it has to make sense for the town and where it wants to be built. You know, in 2022, we actually revised a lot of our zoning in the town.

Tim Forrest: 49:11

We don't want to put an industrial heavy zone next to residential or a school right. We want to do proper planning and zoning. So and we did that very, very well. So right now, all your life science biosciences are out over the Friendship Road area for the most part, minus Amgen which is on the tail end of that, but yeah, it goes near 12 Oaks. But any more economic development that'll go over that way.

Tim Forrest: 49:28

Small business we need more small business centers built. The town's not going to build them. We need developers to actually come in and build those centers that we need. And then also, our policies need to be continually reviewed and updated with consistent application. So we need to continue to review all the policies which are the guiding principles for the town staff to work toward a unified vision. To answer your question more specifically, I think in this next cycle we need to really have a couple areas. One we need to streamline small business access to encourage it more, because we need it. The second piece we need to really continue parks and rec development, because it's way behind the eight ball. They're doing amazing stuff with what they got and they're networking to do amazing things. We need to go and figure that out without raising taxes in 26, 27 budget year. You know how do we do that. Or is that a planning year where you do design and land acquisition and then worry about construction the following year?

Tim Forrest: 50:12

It all depends on several things One, sales tax revenue, commercial revenue, property tax revenue. But the sales tax revenue is interesting. We flatlined this year, the first year in like a decade we kind of made the same money in sales tax revenue we made the previous year. That's because our businesses, our targets, our lows, our restaurants, they're still doing good but they didn't really have a stellar year because a lot of people are tightening the belt, is the opinion from our forecasting people, and so when we see more of that in 25, that affects the 26-27 budget cycle, right, so we have to see how that goes. Anyway, to over-answer your question, parks and rec to me and small businesses have to be on the docket for getting after in 26-27. Everything else still has to run. We still have to do forward planning, strategy and strategic area development and all the other areas, but those are two areas I'd like to specifically see we focus on.

Amanda Benbow Lunn: 50:55

Okay, how would you communicate that decision to residents?

Tim Forrest: 50:59

Great. I mean an easy one for small businesses. It's not a small business, but I think one of the common issues I hear is we need a Trader Joe's. It's not a small company, it is still I think it is still a family owned. However, you hear, trader Joe's, trader Joe's, trader Joe's. We'll be the pinnacle of living with Trader Joe's not the peak of good living, the pinnacle.

Tim Forrest: 51:14

How do we do that?

Tim Forrest: 51:15

We don't have the space. We got a mellow mushroom, that's great. We have an alpaca being built right now, which is awesome. I mean we're getting some real diversity in our options.

Amanda Benbow Lunn: 51:23

My girls are very excited for the sweet frog coming in.

Tim Forrest: 51:26

Yes, yes, and absolutely they should be. My little teenagers went to the sweet frog. I think it was either Apex, I think it has one or at Cary. They went there like Sunday, for you know anyway.

Tim Forrest: 51:37

So I digress, but you know how do we continue to bring in that small business? Well, we want the Trader Joe's of the world. We need more salons, barbershops, we need gas stations. We don't need the small business world anymore, but we need more services for people and the only way to get that is to streamline it, encourage it and actually ask developers to look at developing commercial space for those, like behind the Lowe's Home Improvement Store over here. That's actually zoned commercial. You could technically drop a Costco in and be buy-right zoning, which blows my mind. It's big enough. It blows my mind, but I'd love to see a developer coming in there and put a lot of shops to add, because our residents need that. We have a huge demand in this town for more. We need that. So, with that said, I think small business is easy to sell.

Tim Forrest: 52:15

The parks are wrecked. Majority of our residents still have children at home, you know, based on the numbers from 2020. I'm sure it hasn't changed because our schools are. We're building more schools and they're pretty well in capacity. So obviously it's still a big deal. I know we're in 2030, since this will give us facts. It's obviously actually tomorrow's Rex Road Elementary's grand opening, by the way.

Tim Forrest: 52:34

So we still need parks and rec, but also we need adult stuff, co-ed softball, volleyball, adult stuff to do too. We need more of that. We have some, we need more. So it's easy to say we need things to do to keep us active, we need things for our kids to do and we need things for our seniors to do. So I think that's an easy one to discuss. But we don't raise taxes, we're just patient. We can all the economic incentives as they wear off the next few years. That was built in place by prior councils to be where we are today. They started that in 2007,. Eight and nine. I mean Securus is the first life science, bio science, to open the door.

Tim Forrest: 53:04

You know it was the first one and it took like 15 years later before the next one came. But now they're starting to come in quite regularly. So that was put in place a long time ago to put Holly Springs on the map. They're almost recession-proof industries because they're 10-year cycle fundings and actually CSL Securus' recent split actually benefits Holly Springs because the Securus here is actually the only life science bioscience company in the nation that is considered. We call that an emergency management location for flu and influenza and they're also cell-based technology. They're an RNA technology, so they make 90% of the flu vaccine around the world right here in LA Springs when I'm going with that is that's just a staple that's going to continue to grow and be beneficial to the town with its employees and its impact on the community, and of course their taxes help as well.

Tim Forrest: 53:45

So, long story short, I think I over-answered your question again. However, I want to make sure listeners have something to think about Now. There's not one simple answer to fix a problem. You have to look at things from a 360 perspective kind of get it all together and even then you might miss one degree somewhere. So it's not easy. It's actually more complicated than I think most people I certainly was my first I've been doing government construction for a long time and then as a Corps of Engineer officer. Some of the requirements we have here I would never have guessed, because they don't have them in the federal government side. Anyway.

Amanda Benbow Lunn: 54:11

Do you feel we already adequately meet the needs of any of these the infrastructure, public safety, parks and recreation and housing affordability?

Tim Forrest: 54:19

No, we sure don't. There's more work to do, Amanda. We have more work to do, but we can't solve this with a flick of a switch. Or let's increase taxes 100% to pay for it. It just doesn't operate that way. I wish there was a magic button. If somebody had won the lottery for that $1.7 billion and gave it to the town, we still probably wouldn't be okay for a while. Assuming somebody would give it to the town.

Tim Forrest: 54:37

As I look at that, we have more work to do and we have to get after it piece by piece and with a strategy, and we incrementally do some every year and next.

Tim Forrest: 54:45

thing you know we have a great product. Eagles Landing Park the last thing I saw should finish in 27. We somehow can get it budgeted between incentives coming in and some construction costs have started to lower because the construction industry itself is slowing. If we can still realize gains in that area, maybe that can pull Baltus faster to the next part. But that takes A being crafty. Some of this is an art, not a science. You can take a political science class at UNC School of Government and they can lay it out for you, but at the end when you take that class it says, well, it's an art, not a science. Good luck, because I've taken several classes there during my tenure on council to make sure I understood problem sets. And for those interested, they do a great UNC School of Government class on affordable housing planning and zoning and cultural awareness. So they have great classes there. Highly recommend people to take them Excellent.

Amanda Benbow Lunn: 55:27

As the population grows. What strategies would you prioritize to address roads, utilities and other infrastructure challenges?

Tim Forrest: 55:34

There's an underlying theme to most of your questions roads, utilities and other infrastructure challenges. There's an underlying theme to most of your questions. So, and I don't want to be repetitive, that's just horrible. For the listener Roads, we continue to work with NCDOT because we don't own them. We own subdivision roads and we have some agreements for a couple of the roads, like downtown Main Street, between High Springs Road and 55. We have an agreement with the state. We'll manage, but outside of that, everything has to go through NCDOT and the state legislature to improve roads. We will continue that, I have no doubt. If we're elected, we will continue to focus on using all our assets from legislative, active committee lobbying, identifying issues, explaining it in science and engineering terms that can be understood, doing the right things to keep pushing forward for more infrastructure. One new thing since this is repetitive, it's giving me time to think I appreciate it.

Tim Forrest: 56:20

One new thing, though, is we just signed an MOU this spring for State Route 751, also known as New Hill Road, the road that runs by Harris Lake that goes to US 1 on the backside. I'm sure you're familiar with it. We just signed a memorandum of agreement for the bridge embankments because they're owned by the town because they're owned by the town, happened 50 years ago. Don't know how or why that happened, but we somehow own those. But we signed an MOU with the state that they can go ahead and develop that and so that's in design now for all the bridges on 751 by Harris Lake and when they finish that design their intent is to build those all the four lane bridges with the median divided, and once the bridges are built they're going to build out the rest of the road. So they like to improve the bridges in the road, not the road than the bridges. It makes sense when you think about traffic flow.

Tim Forrest: 56:56

That's also in the works. We want to continue pushing that, obviously because that provides a back channel to US 1. We've also got some connectivity roads I'd like to see develop. I don't think some homeowners would like this but, as you've probably seen, riding around the neighborhood, you see a little sign that says future road extension or a future road, something like that. In the neighborhood right, it looks like a road just stops. So that's because they are designed to eventually connect over to somewhere else, another subdivision or another main road. There's a couple in Avon Ferry that actually are designed that way, but they're in neighborhood and so we could actually connect Avent Ferry Road to Green Oaks Parkway and we have the zoning and the land and all that.

Tim Forrest: 57:30

Well, I don't know the land. Duke Energy has the Well, we don't own the land. Duke Energy has a land which we work with them. But if we connect those then that actually provides some thoroughfare not on 55 and not on 751. On the sunset side of the house, we need to really press forward with moving that to a four lane which is on NCDOT's radar. But we need to press them. When they looked at it in 24, it wasn't as needy as 55. So we need to continue that press for sunset and go from there.

Tim Forrest: 57:53

With infrastructure, we're going to continue, obviously, construction of water sewer. We're upgrading our wastewater sewer system from 6 to 8 MGD right now. The construction should start very soon and then after that the Council of 2028 needs to look at the recommended upgrade from 8 to 14 MGD, which will be our full capacity, based on planning and zoning of a 20-year plan. But it takes years to build those things. It'll take two years to build six to eight, but then to go from eight to 14, it'll take five to seven years. Okay, but there again we're also still ahead of the curve if we do it early, we do it smart and we budget appropriately and we use engineering techniques that we can save money with, versus what was happening for a while before.

Tim Forrest: 58:30

I was on council. Some things could have been done better, like the 2017 road bond. I wasn't on council, but that was not really done the right way. I'll just leave it at that. We got a lot of things coming up in infrastructure, water, roads. Duke Energy is great to work with. When you identify future areas, they're actually quick to build out to it and throw up a substation, to buy the land and put it out there, and that's great. We don't control Duke Energy, but I want to continue lobbying with Duke Energy for prices for residents. We're all being squeezed to death. Duke Energy prices are no different. We need to ramp up our lobbying with Duke Energy to really look at you know, sitting next to a nuclear reactor, do we need to have the same prices of somebody that's using a coal reactor across the state?

Tim Forrest: 59:06

a coal factory across the state. Do we really should we ban that? Again, we don't control it. I just think we need to start lobbying heavier. We have been lobbying with them for that stuff, but we need to do that heavier. We need to put more resources and time into it, in my opinion, to help bring costs down for residents.

Amanda Benbow Lunn: 59:19

Okay, Holly Springs has focused on bringing in the biomedical and science-based businesses. How would you balance supporting these businesses and garnering more of the like with some public sentiment that may be skeptical of science or vaccines?

Tim Forrest: 59:37

Wow, that's a multi-part question. That's taken me a minute. I think it's a two-part question. Sure, let's go to the first part. How do we cultivate it?

Tim Forrest: 59:40

We've already got great economic development that's tied into all the POC points of contacts and all the industry standards and industry needs. And I think we've got to continue that development because even now in Genentech's groundbreaking they had, you know, two weeks ago, you know they had the US ambassador to the US from Switzerland there, several high-end life science, bioscience types there, and all of them start to say Holly Springs is its own hub. They think Durham is their own thing. They think Holly Springs is not Durham, it's its own life science biohub. Now, which is actually kind of cool it is. I was kind of like, yeah, all right, which is great, and I think that's a way to say we need to continue that development. But we don't incentivize them to come here. They pay to come here. Now, what we have that they need is not just water sewer, we have a nuclear reactor for their energy supplies and we also have access to a workforce thanks to all the universities in the area. And of course, as you know you probably do know, knowing you you're pretty tied. In Wake Tech is actually building a campus right there just on the other side of 540, at 55 at Dell Technology Drive, for life science, bioscience, to be really engaged with and providing, helping provide a workforce.

Tim Forrest: 1:00:40

And I don't know if you've heard, but Pine Springs Preparatory Academy's high school they're building they purposely positioned it on Green Oaks Parkway now to build a high school for the junior seniors to actually intern at the life science bioscience offering a focus when they graduate, with the certifications to actually start working there when they graduate high school. And there's more. I think it was Fuji's paid for the revamping of Hollis Springs High School biotech lab. They didn't really have one but they built one and they fund the teacher position so students can take that class at Hollis Springs High School. Now I understand that they've been asked to do that at a couple of the high schools in the area.

Tim Forrest: 1:01:10

I'm not sure the status of those, but having two kids in Holly Springs High School I'm pretty tied into that school. So I know that happened and it's moving in the right direction and those are great things. So I think economic development's well its way there. We do need to be open to different things, though that may be in the technology world. Not a data center. Not a data center. Not a fan of the water usage on that, not a fan of it all. No, it's a non-starter in my book and Tim's opinion.

Tim Forrest: 1:01:31

It at all. No, it's a non-starter in my book, in Tim's opinion, in my one-person opinion, non-starter in my book. They have their needs and they have a place in the world, I'm sure, but not in my book for Holly Springs. A little side note there. Obviously you know where that comes from, but when you start looking at the building of the life science, the impact on the culture and the community, the more they integrate into our community, the more they're in time They'll sponsor more with Parks and Rec. They already sponsor things in communities such as the high school. They are recruiting a workforce. We're developing a workforce around them which will impact culture and thoughts about those who may believe in a vaccine and those who may don't.

Tim Forrest: 1:02:03

All of them are cellular-based, not RNA-based, so that's a whole different ball of wax. If you look at the polio vaccine almost 100 years ago now, roughly versus RNA developed recently, I'm not going to get into that one, but the cellular-based ones, like your flu shots, they're still cellular-based vaccine. Their efficacy is super, duper high and if it's a person's right to say they don't want the vaccine, that's sure. It's like school choice you do, you Go ahead. However, we have to keep an open mind that how many lives have been saved by cellular-based vaccines is the way I would present that discussion to anybody.

Tim Forrest: 1:02:32

Me personally, I've been around the world. I've touched every continent. I've lived in or been to 42 countries on behalf of our army and our government building schools in Dominican Republic to building women's schools in Afghanistan. I've seen the world at large Vaccines save lives. Myself I have like a three-page sheet from the military Good topic. It's probably on my sheet. I've had it all. To your question, for those who don't believe in it, I understand their point of view and I respect their point of view and their right to decide the tax base, the income, the impact on the community, the workforce, the jobs offered, the things like that. That's individuals choose to do that. That is all them. If they disagree with it, that is your right. I respect it A hundred percent. I respect everybody's right to their opinion and the right to their body.

Amanda Benbow Lunn: 1:03:09

As our town grows, farmland faces pressure from development and some residents struggle to access fresh food. How would you support local farmers, protect farmland and help ensure everyone has access to healthy, affordable food?

Tim Forrest: 1:03:22

You know, we only have one farmland in Holly Springs that's still operational the ETJ.

Tim Forrest: 1:03:25

It's owned by Gunny Mallon Jones down Evenfair Road. We actually have an egg producing operation that's mom and pop owns as well down Evenfair Road and they need to continue doing what they do and we need to continue supporting them doing what they do. When we look at development, when we look at impact, we look at what's coming in. We need to be respectful of their rights and the impact on their land. Recent state supreme court decision I think it was rude versus apex, I think it's what it's called the supreme court found that towns, for the good of the town, can build in-ways of land, but if a town's building in the right-of-way of town for a developer, it no longer can do that that has sent shockwaves through the community.

Tim Forrest: 1:03:58

Why is that important, tim? Why did you bring that up? That's the question I would ask myself. One one of the recent developments the Reagan property at the end of just stop there, nothing good will come out of the rest of that. I don't believe we had the right facts in 24 when we approved that. However, the quasi-judicial first time ever, because quasi-judicials are a legal matter Do you meet the requirements for the land rezoning all those things? It actually was Mr Jones, who came out along with TJ Parker, who operates the chicken egg operation, who came out along with TJ Parker, who operates the chicken egg operation, came out and laid out specifically the impact of their land. And when Mr Jones says they want to cut a 60-foot right-of-way through the middle of my farm, which will make it inoperable, that never came up prior. That never came up at the legislative hearing when asked about impacts for the residents nearby.

Tim Forrest: 1:04:47

That never came up. And you can't just go killing somebody's livelihood. It's one thing to say you've got to bury some lines by the side of the road, right. Mm-hmm. But the way it has to be designed is it cuts through somebody's middle of the land and destroys their opportunity to make a living. So that's why I was overturned. I won a 5-0 vote, which is the first time I've ever seen it that unanimous. Mm-hmm.

Tim Forrest: 1:05:04

That unanimous, long story To just say, yes, we, if we're going to have development, it's not an active farm site and they want to sell the land. One last story, and I'll leave this topic alone Norris Crossing, which is under construction by Lenar down here off Avon Ferry Road, was approved three years ago or so. The owner of that land there's 13 people that own that land, family members. Only one lives here. The rest live out of state for the most part. The remaining person that lives here was the one responsible, but they wanted to sell the land because nobody wants to live here and the guy that does live here, none of his kids want to live here because they've gotten jobs everywhere else raising families, other places and all that. So they want to sell the land, which is their right and it was farmland. I met with the owner great guy, older guy and he actually showed me the deed it was in plastic sleeve where that land ever since and he's going to stay on that land.

Tim Forrest: 1:05:52

He's what I call a donut hole because he wants to stay in the ETJ. So there's a little donut hole in the middle of it where he's going to stay. But they wanted to sell the land because they want to move on, which is their right to sell. However, the impact actually was beneficial because there was a firing range on that land, which there's other neighborhoods around that you can hear the gunshots and all that stuff, and so that had to close down.

Tim Forrest: 1:06:10

At the same time, there is interconnectivity with other neighborhoods. Remember the road signs we talked about that says future road extension. Well, one neighborhood they had to build that future road extension into Norris Crossing. Those neighbors weren't happy, so we reshuffled where the community mailbox was going to go, so it lessens through traffic in that area except for school buses, police and fire. That's why you do this for public services. But that's one example of that. Land is not being farmed. It's not going to be farmed. They just want to sell it outright and they want to move on. Okay, Does it make sense for the town to build our double sidewalks road frontage? They improved it's the equivalent of a four lane in front of the neighborhood now, but only two lanes are open because we're not finished four lane in that area. Obviously that's a different example of farmland that's no longer in use.

Tim Forrest: 1:06:50

That well okay, versus Mr Jones, who he's still operating his farm, and that would kill his business. So those are two prime examples of when it makes sense, okay. When it doesn't make sense, not okay. Let's be smart about this, and I appreciate Mr Jones and TJ Parker for their extremely detailed impact analysis. That made great sense. So, yes, protect farmlands, especially if they're in operation.

Amanda Benbow Lunn: 1:07:15

Our police sometimes receive requests from outside agencies, while also addressing local needs. How would you set priorities for public safety with limited resources? Number one.

Tim Forrest: 1:07:24

Our police need to be posing cons to that. Like some people may be aware some people may not be aware we actually have an SRT team like an old SWAT team. As the analysis it's a SRIF reaction team. It's made up of officers that do extra training to be prepared in case they need to do something. Part of their training we do loan them to the SBI for some of their adventures or we do loan them to Raleigh for high profile dignitaries but we get reimbursed for their time.

Tim Forrest: 1:07:47

They pay their salaries over time, travel, all that stuff. So there's no cost to the town at all. We actually save a little money. If you want to talk real dollars and cents, that's good teamwork with your neighbor, the way the state's moved in the last decade for driven by hurricane response, but they have a unified system. They can talk from Holly Springs to Asheville and their network right. You just got to go to the right frequency and talk to them and pop back to your frequency. And so we help Fuquay with fire and police, we helped carry, we've been into Raleigh, we've been into Apex a lot, we've been all over the place with our police and fire assets to help and they've been here because it's a team effort and based on the laws of the state. They can operate in our towns if invited, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. So I believe those will go well and we get reimbursed from the other municipalities for their time. So we're not losing money.

Tim Forrest: 1:08:29

So, budget-wise is not the discussion to have when we look at the way we handle community policing. Continue to have a coffee with a cop, a meal with a cop, shopping with a cop or holiday presents. You know that all needs to continue, 100% needs to continue, because those are building confidence in the community and they're getting to know the police officers. One thing we need to continue is our SRO program in the schools.

Tim Forrest: 1:08:48

We fund those. Wake County doesn't fund those and that's actually been very beneficial. High Springs High School alone, they have two and a rotating SRO for their couple thousand students and they do great work. But they do a lot of community policing in there, building trust, getting to know people, getting to know who they need to keep an eye on and who they need to talk to and who this stuff is. And the school I grew up in just outside of Atlanta, georgia, the high school I grew up in had an SRO. She was great. She made you feel like she was there to help you if you needed it. She wasn't like the big bag police. All those things we need to keep.

Tim Forrest: 1:09:16

So, with outside agencies at the state level and below. It works great. Once in a blue moon they're invited by the FBI to do a function or provide security for a dignitary that might be visiting Fort Bragg. You know the en route stuff just driving up and down the interstate or back roads or whatever. So I don't know of anything beyond that. There are some recent changes to state law that require assistance with Homeland Security and other agencies underneath. That. Still not sure how it's going to work out yet. But, more importantly, I'm not sure if we will ever come up with that radar screen here. We don't have a lot of workers on farms. We don't have a lot of, so I'm not sure how that's going to work yet.

Tim Forrest: 1:09:54

And that's too soon question. We got to let that play out and see where it goes from there.

Amanda Benbow Lunn: 1:09:56

Al right, how can the town better support small businesses?

Tim Forrest: 1:09:57

and connect with their needs. The short answer is we talked about a couple of times having one single belly button in town to help them walk through the processes. They need help provide common sense to their questions. We had one small business a couple of years ago come into town and say, hey, we want to open up. It's essentially a school for children with issues such as autism or learning disabilities or whatever. But they didn't say that. When they walked in it came across as their opening a daycare, which caused headaches for that business for several months until somebody not sure who realized they're not a daycare.

Tim Forrest: 1:10:24

They processed a different way and they don't have to build all this stuff or add all this stuff to their property because they're not a daycare. That's a prime example of if there had been a small business advocate, which we have, a small business developer, but needs to be repurposed, in my opinion, to actually walk them through the steps that would save them time, energy, money and get them moving faster. We also need to relook at some of the ordinances and other policies surrounding the development of small business to make sure they're in favor of small business as long as it's smart, ethical, developmental and it makes sense. So I hate to say common sense applies, but it should apply for when somebody's trying to open a business. For instance, in another business they were just doing expansion of a deck. They were told you need to add 20 feet of green buffer space. With type C oblique. They back up to a watershed that already had 20 feet of vegetation with trees and naturally grown vegetation. They're like I have to add 20 more feet of it and that didn't make sense. But once it got to the right level it resolved itself. That still took like a month where if you had an advocate, so an advocate to move it in, help them grow small businesses.

Tim Forrest: 1:11:24

We do have a small town development grant, small town business development grant. So if they're moving into an office building or location downtown they can apply for that grant. It's not a whole lot of money, but it's enough to try and offset some of their maybe internal design or countertops or whatever it is. It's not a lot of money right now. We just approved it a few months ago. It's still in its infancy, not enough metrics to really talk about the results of it yet, so we just have to see how that plays out. However, we do need to make a focus on small businesses next council, because we've got all lot of residents. Great Residents need services. Business need services. We need to figure that out better. So which is small to medium businesses need to be worked on.

Amanda Benbow Lunn: 1:11:58

What approaches would you take to foster understanding and collaboration amongst residents with differing perspectives?

Tim Forrest: 1:12:04

Many things like now. If somebody has an issue with something, I'd just say hey, you want to meet for a cup of coffee? Can I call you? Let's talk through this. A lot of times it's information flow and once people find out the town is mainly moving in a whole of town approach, their problem may be resolved or may not be resolved. If it's not resolved, it's usually like some other things we probably could help them with or work on with to get them to the next level.

Tim Forrest: 1:12:25

When it comes with disagreements, I know right now we live in a crazy environment, state and federal level of things. I'm not going to hit those because they have nothing to do with the town. However, a lot of people are frustrated with government, as in general, we are very transparent. I encourage anybody if you think the town is doing something wrong, come into the town attorney, town manager, get a full download, talk to people, see the numbers. I was very impressed in 22 with the transparency and it's only improved since then. I think it's funny. In each election cycle you know, I really hope the listeners hear this In each election cycle candidates that haven't been on council always say oh, transparency in government, transparency in government.

Tim Forrest: 1:12:59

And then all of a sudden they get an office and they don't bring it up again. Food for thought why? Because it's extremely transparent. Holly Springs town government lists everything on their websites. They answer all. May take them a hot minute based on volume, but they answer all public inquiries. They answer everything in detail and if you still have an issue they will sit with you. They'll put you with the smee in the room. They don't hold back.

Tim Forrest: 1:13:18

I mean, could we find some areas that need more transparency? I'm sure there's going to be something somewhere we could always improve on and we should, but in general, the 23 of the people elected to council ran on transparency issues and never brought it up again. Every now and then say can you clean up the website better to make it look better? That's all I've heard him say. We're very blessed with transparency in our town. We need to continue that. We don't need to hide it. We need to hide anything ever. Morals and characters of our town, and especially our town staff, has to be good and solid. In this crazy atmosphere and time.

Tim Forrest: 1:13:45

This is something we, the voter, can influence

Amanda Benbow Lunn: 1:13:48

Okay. How will you ensure diverse voices and those most impacted are not only included, but truly embraced in decision making?

Tim Forrest: 1:13:56

Absolutely so. First I'll talk about our boards planning board, board of adjustments, parks and rec committee, team recreational advisory committee, track tree advisory committee, tac, police advisory committee, pac. I could go on for a while. We got some inaccuracies going on here. They do a great job of when they appoint people, whether it's council appointment, the chief of police appointment, whether it's parks, rec appointment on the team, recreational advisory committee, board of adjustments by council, planning board by council, whatever it is. When we get the packet from the town, from applicants, we get a map that shows where they live in town. There's little dots everywhere. It has a little legend. See, Tim Forrest lives here a little dot. You can find me right here, so you can get a cross section of people. And when I look for board of adjustments I want to get a mix of people.

Tim Forrest: 1:14:36

but you don't really get the demographics if that makes sense because it's not on the application process, because it's not an application for employment, it's an application to volunteer for town boards. As I've learned, there's different requirements for that according to state law. So we go through and try and pick people and I'll look at the education where they live, their statement of why they want to do what they want to do, and so we appoint pretty much that way. The police department has the chief once or from all different places across town and him and his deputy pick everybody for that one. The teen one's picked by Parks and Rec. Tree advisory can be picked by us too. But we need people from all sections cross sections, ethnicities, backgrounds to be on boards. But we also get who applies. So it could be one cycle, could be we get like 10 people because somebody in, say, 12 Oaks said hey, they blasted out on the homeowners page, you should apply for these boards, and people apply for the boards and we get 10 from one location and like three from the rest of the town but we have like five slots to fill. Does that make sense? We send it out. The open period is three months, like from 1 October to December 31st. Like planning board and board of adjustments. It means three month application period and we'll get like 20 people but 10, maybe one neighborhood, which is not helpful. I'm glad the information is getting out and being shared, but how do we bring that home?

Tim Forrest: 1:15:43

So, in addition, planning board, we do our ordinances for development, our process, just a process, our flow chart. The public hearing now is before council and planning board. You know where they can come in, sit with the developer, hear all about it, make their public statements, public comments. They can file the public comments with the town directly. That goes to all council members, the mayor. They can attend the planning board sessions and when council sees a legislative section, they can sign up for public speaking during that legislative topic and also bring light discrepancy to it. But it's not just development. We have the same thing for ordinances. So if a town law is being passed for X, y and Z, they can talk with that. When we change policies, there's a public comment period for that.

Tim Forrest: 1:16:16

They can incorporate in In addition to meeting. Again, if somebody wants to meet, I meet with them. If a group wants to meet, I met with a group one day that was not exactly friendly when I walked in but by the time I left, we were all good. I'm your neighbor number one. Do we incorporate it for the whole of Holly Springs and make it for the whole of the town, not just a group or two groups? How do we do for the whole of the town? And that's something that I don't hear a lot of people talk about right now, but I do. I haven't lost it and I still believe in the whole of the town.

Amanda Benbow Lunn: 1:16:40

Okay. Do you support a non-discrimination ordinance or policy?

Amanda Benbow Lunn: 1:16:51

Why or why not?

Tim Forrest: 1:16:52

Wow, that's a great question. However, I'm the only one on council that's actually signed a resolution and made a public statement to say everyone is welcome here, Disabled, veterans, veterans, people with disabilities, all genders, whatever your thing is welcome, religions welcome.

Tim Forrest: 1:17:05

I'm the only one on council that has signed that. That is still on council today because Dan Berry's not running again. He did sign it as well. And so, when we look at this, wake County non-discrimination ordinance was intended to address discrimination, public accommodation and employment, but the results show it has created more confusion than clarity Since its adoption. According to the Wake County Attorney's Office, who sent me this data, since John Schifano, the town attorney who sent this out, the county has received a total of 112 complaints 83 related to public accommodations, 29 in employment and 14 were forwarded to Campbell University to have mediation.

Tim Forrest: 1:17:35

Yet the majority of them have been dismissed because they were outside the county's jurisdiction, because they qualified for federal or state protections, which is more legal and has more teeth. They also did not qualify as a place of public accommodation or did not involve employment, even though it said they did. In short, it's been a poor fit for the issue that was being raised. What's more important for Holly Springs is that not a single complaint has originated from our town None, none have gone to Wake County from Holly Springs. That demonstrates that our community already values fairness. We're welcoming, we respect, without relying on the heavy regulatory overlay. The ordinance itself, for those that adopted it, has created bureaucracy without improving outcomes for anybody. It's added another layer Anytime a small business or medium-sized business has a case, they have to hire an attorney, they have to pay that attorney and then the majority of it gets dismissed anyway. And now that small business has now spent tens of thousands of dollars potentially, which could put them out of business, with no result. In addition, the people have seen no result With that set of the 14 that went to Campbell Law School. You don't know what happened to it because it's hidden. That's another thing I like about the ordinance it doesn't tell you the outcome. Was the mediation successful? Was it in their favor, or was it let's agree to disagree and move on? Or was it in the company's favor that was being presented? We don't know the outcome. Talk about transparency, but I knew that back then. I knew that, the way it was formulated and written, we would not know the outcome. If we're't even know there was a bad outcome, how do we learn from it? We don't. You don't learn from that ordinance, so I get it. I will quote my council member, aaron Wolf it's more of a statement than it is a ordinance and that was his quote. End quote.

Tim Forrest: 1:19:00

With that said, I happily signed in 2023, the town's non-discrimination resolution along with our Mayor Mayefskie, Dan Berry. Actually, I think Danielle signed that one too. No, Kristi signed that one. Danielle signed it. No, I think Danielle signed it. I might be wrong on that one. That said, everyone's welcome here.

Tim Forrest: 1:19:13

And a resolution carries the same moral weight and clarity and clearly sets out our values as a community, and it avoids burdening our residents with tax dollars, because it does cost After two years, you have to pay into this program to be a part of this ordinance, by the way, but it doesn't burden our residents with additional taxes. It doesn't burden our small and medium-sized businesses with having to hire an attorney and additional regulations, and then it goes from a complaint-driven enforcement structure that's been proven ineffective to we have a lot of great laws and, to be honest with you, all these businesses moving here, all of them have this built in their policies anyway, whether it's AMC, theaters or Amgen, they have these policies built in. They don't put up with this, and I agree with it. Everyone should be welcome.

Tim Forrest: 1:19:48

So I think the resolution puts our focus where it belongs, affirming dignity and respect for everyone without creating confusion, redundant processes or unnecessary bureaucracy, which proves ineffective and doesn't answer the question how do we learn? How do we love differently? How do we make things happen? It doesn't. With that said, in Holly Springs I believe in building a culture that is welcoming to all and fairness to all. The resolution we adopted reflects that commitment. We don't need a county ordinance that generates complaints from outside our jurisdiction that we share the cost of, and so we need clear local leadership that sets expectations, continue to build trust people of Holly Springs and ensure every resident and visitor knows that we're a welcoming town. That's kind of my position on the non-discrimination ordinance. Okay.

Amanda Benbow Lunn: 1:20:26

Have you gained any endorsements thus far and if you gain more, where might voters find that information?

Tim Forrest: 1:20:31

All endorsements will be on the website. Social media is packed right now with a lot of stuff. I don't think I'll put many on social media. I think Sheriff Donnie Harrison's been my endorsement for, you know, leadership and public service with utilities and stuff like that, so it's a real good one. That's on social media. That's also on the website. I'm sure there'll be some more. Actually, most of the people just now reached out to have meetings to talk about endorsements and I'll meet with anybody and I'll tell them how. I truly believe the biggest complaint I hear from developers are you charge a lot of fees. Yes, yes, because we're a growing town and I don't want to burden the taxpayer with paying for your development. I'm a little bit nicer in how I say it to them. That was a little bit blunt and I apologize.

Tim Forrest: 1:21:08

But, I'm a little nicer how my fees just to happily entertain looking at the fees. But I'm not going to reduce our fees because we need those funds for a growing, burgeoning town that needs to succeed and do well, without trying to crush the taxpayer. Whether it's that or other agencies that want to see different things here, just like with you, amanda, I'll tell them my positions and my statements and if we agree, great. If we don't, great. We'll move on. So I think Sheriff Donnie Harrison's the only one on the website, right?

Tim Forrest: 1:21:29

now maybe Molly Sears has endorsed me. Dick, her husband, you may remember he endorsed me for election 21 and Molly's continuing that trend. So I think that's about it. Right now there's a bunch in the works. I'm not too worried about endorsements, I'm more worried about you know, I've got four years of a history. Unlike anybody else running for council, you can actually see a track record. Has this track record been good for the town? Have I done what I said I'm going to do? Am I going to listen while I vote and what I believe is for the good of the town? I believe that's why I was elected the first time. If it hasn't been for the good of the town, let me know. Let me know why and let's have a discussion on it.

Tim Forrest: 1:21:59

Unlike a state legislature or a federal legislative person or higher, we don't have a personal staff. I'm a staff of one. I get to talk to everybody. When you call the phone number, that's on the website or the Facebook page, or if you have a flyer or whatever, that's my personal cell phone number and I answer it. Crazy being, I don't answer it for 10 o'clock at night because I have protected time, but I will return a phone call and so if something's not going right, let me know. If you feel that a group's not being heard, I'll be happy to meet with you. But what is it? You're not being heard? A concern, and where should the town be involved? And those are the questions I usually ask. So we need to continue building a welcoming town for all, focused on proper smart growth development and hopefully we get there.

Amanda Benbow Lunn: 1:22:43

Excellent, when can listeners connect with you and learn more about your platform

Amanda Benbow Lunn: 1:22:45

upcoming events, and ways to get involved?

Tim Forrest: 1:22:46

This year, unlike the last time, I know a little bit more than I did, right. Hopefully people learn as they do things for long enough right.

Tim Forrest: 1:22:55

So I have a sub stack where I've written a lot of policies and policy proposals, from crossing guards to the way we can do water better Made a lot of strides in water. However, you can read a sub stack which is easy to find. Just go to sub stack, type my name. It should pop up right away. You can go to my website timforrest4hscom. No-transcript. Something for them to read.

Amanda Benbow Lunn: 1:23:20

Okay, and just to clarify your website timforrest4hs. com. That's the number four and not spelled out correct.

Tim Forrest: 1:23:27

Yes, timforrest4hscom, you're correct.

Amanda Benbow Lunn: 1:23:37

Perfect. Do you have any final thoughts you'd like to share with those voting in the upcoming election?

Tim Forrest: 1:23:39

You know, for those voting in the upcoming election, I think we have to look at several things. One are we moving in a better direction than four years ago? Are we focused on the right things? And I think we are, and I hope the town agrees with that. So I would like to thank you, amanda, for the time today and putting this podcast together. I know it's a lot of work and a lot of different personalities, a lot of editing on your part. I appreciate all that work. And then, most importantly, to the residents of Holly Springs, who will take the time to listen to this podcast in its entirety. I hope Thank you for doing that. Forms like this. It matters. This podcast matters. Every way you can understand a candidate matters.

Tim Forrest: 1:24:07

It's not about soundbites or slogans. With me, it's about accountability and vision and moving the town forward. It's also not about politics. With me, over the last four years, I think I've worked hard to deliver results and improve daily life for our community. Together, we've secured $236 million for infrastructure. Water sewer capacity is growing and increasing and under development. Parks under development should be up and running soon. We've had more greenways open than ever in the last four years and we're building more. We need more recreational facilities. I know that we need more parks and rec. I know that we need to still continue to build out the town. They're bringing people together. We've strengthened our economy by supporting both major employers and small businesses that give Holly Springs its heart and truly.

Tim Forrest: 1:24:44

This is about leadership. It's not about just checking off projects or sound bites from political parties. It's about building trust, listening to residents and making sure every decision is grounded in the values that make up this town, which I believe mirror the same values I have in working for the federal government the army and the principles of service and also, honestly, the scout law values. They're very similar to the town values in my opinion, and so my guiding focus will continue to be what's good for the town, the whole town, regardless of backgrounds of anybody, service before self and solutions over politics.

Tim Forrest: 1:25:14

Looking ahead as we face these challenges. Growth is coming. We can't stop it. We can shape it, and that's what we're doing now with our 20% growth in 2024. But that means ensuring development is balanced and thoughtful, protecting the character of our neighborhoods, investing in infrastructure before it's overwhelmed and before it's fully needed, and maintaining the sense of community that makes Holly Springs special.

Tim Forrest: 1:25:32

I'm proud of the work we've done. I'm even more excited about what lies ahead for our town if we do it right, and I'd like to ask for their support and continue working to make Holly Springs a place where families can put down roots, seniors feel supported, people of all character, walk of life feel they can be a part of the town. Businesses, large and small, can thrive. And, at the end of the day, the role of councilman is not about me, it's about us. It's about the building a town where we're proud to call home today and for the next generations that will be after us. So I'm asking for their trust from the viewer, I'm asking for your partnership from the viewer and I'm asking for your vote this November so that together we can keep Holly Springs moving forward in the right direction.

Amanda Benbow Lunn: 1:26:06

Perfect. So before I let you go, we're going to go down a lightning round of questions. It's not anything to do with running for town council or Holly Springs, really, but to get to know you a little bit better and build some humanity into this. Sure, what's something you do that helps you to recharge?

Tim Forrest: 1:26:24

Very much not political. I actually walk every morning around 4.30 in the morning. Old ministry guy do have some habits of diehard, but I do walk all around Holly Springs and all the greenways, sidewalks. You see me out walking quite a bit with my dog. I got a little golden doodle. She's awesome. You'll see me out with her most times. That gives me time to look, see, think. You know much like running did for me for many years until I couldn't run anymore. You know and understand, when you walk around this town, not just downtown but the town itself through the different greenways, you get to see everybody you know and get to see the different parts of it. That's the part I love. I'm in love with our town. We have a great town and so that's one thing I do.

Tim Forrest: 1:27:01

To recharge and refit is in addition to spending time with family. I have four boys total. Two are already out of school and they're great, they're awesome. But they're my beautiful bride. We've been together. I think December 13th it'll be 20 years together, 18 years of marriage, and I really enjoy spending time with her. She makes me laugh. She's very much her own person. She's an attorney and partner for a firm. She also teaches Campbell Law School. She is an adjunct professor. She sits on a veterans nonprofit board for national board, very engaged in the community with other areas too. So she's in her own right, her own person. But when we're together it's about us. We have a great time together and just enjoy being with her as well. So those are all things I do to recharge family faith and friendship and exercise.

Amanda Benbow Lunn: 1:27:47

What's a hobby, talent or fun fact about you that most people don't know?

Tim Forrest: 1:27:52

Fun fact I have seven grandchildren.

Amanda Benbow Lunn: 1:27:54

What's something that is difficult for you.

Tim Forrest: 1:27:56

Many people probably don't know when I retired from the military.

Tim Forrest: 1:27:58

I had to retire because I suffered an injury in Syria which broke my L5 and a half, moved L4 over.

Tim Forrest: 1:28:03

So I truly went from a wheelchair to a walker, to a cane and, through experimental therapies, physical therapies and, thank goodness for great, great people in the medical field, I walk fine today. You would never know it unless you know these facts. So what I find difficult is when I'm trying to talk to somebody, encourage somebody, and they have a hard time seeing a way forward. So it just makes me try to find different ways to connect to them, to try and help them with some of their thoughts and the way they're moving forward, not in a counselor role, but as a friend or whatever it is. You know, because when you're faced with insurmountable odds, in the way you see it at the moment, there's always a different path, and looking for that path is hard for everybody, no matter how successful you are not successful, it's always difficult, and so when you look at it from that standpoint, those are ways that I find difficult. I think it's a short way to say it.

Amanda Benbow Lunn: 1:28:47

Okay, what book, podcast or TV show are you enjoying right now?

Tim Forrest: 1:28:53

Oh, books, we read a good bit Right now I'm not reading a book. Podcasts, there's several. Remember my background, so it's a little different than most. But the Army War College, where one of my master's degree is from, it's kind of West Point's higher education system, but I have a master's degree in studies they put out a podcast almost weekly that covers geopolitical politics with some emphasis on the military, and so I enjoy those from a strategy standpoint, a political strategy standpoint, because they're really nonpartisan, they're really well done and so I enjoy those. And then how that works. So I listen to those quite often as well, as I've been listening to the Middle America podcast lately. I think we have a thing coming up I was unaware that in 23, he did a podcast with a candidate that's running in 23 as well. And some of the discussions have actually been actually invigorating.

Tim Forrest: 1:29:32

There's some slight overtones in there of politics, but by and large they're actually pretty good, so that's been good. I've been listening to lately out of necessity, and then TV shows. My wife and I usually choose comedies to watch. You know we enjoy that comic relief. Pick one. There's several good ones out right now yeah.

Amanda Benbow Lunn: 1:29:48

Who's your favorite superhero?

Tim Forrest: 1:29:50

Oh my gosh, that's something. Uh, if I get the wrong answer, my 15 year old would be not happy with me. So if it's a non-marvel character, I have to be very careful when he hears this. Yeah, I'd say old school superman, or actually the latest superman I thought was really well done the joyous time. And two teenage boys. They like to see those, you know, they just like to go to movies. Their dad, right, I'm sure you'll be there soon with your kids. So we saw the new super Superman a couple weeks ago, a month ago, whatever it was it came out and honestly it was kind of like the old way of morals and characters and values that we should all be aspiring to. It's kind of the message underlying message which up until recently, a lot of these superhero movies were about the dark side and battling their enemy within type stuff which is good stuff really be striving to as a country and as a nation, as a people, kind of what it gets after in its own way.

Tim Forrest: 1:30:33

And I really enjoyed that and I was like you know what it's hard and even in that movie the Superman character plays a hard character because he's like he's conflicted. You know he's conflicted with it but he knows what the right answer is and how to get there. He has a hard time seeing but he gets there in the end right, and he saves the day and all that right superman movie. So I'd say that's probably one recently I've seen that I think would be really really good.

Tim Forrest: 1:30:52

It's really refreshing

Amanda Benbow Lunn: 1:30:54

okay, what's the best piece of advice you've ever received?

Tim Forrest: 1:30:57

so we're gonna go old school, okay, so, pardon the expression, you have two ears for listening and one for speaking for a purpose. Listen before you speak, and that's the thing that's hard what's one guilty pleasure you secretly enjoy? Oh, all right. So I fall in love with fresh ice cream. So so I try to keep it limited, because obviously, as we get older we got to be a little more careful about how much we splurge. But you know, whenever the boys are like dad, can we go to fresh?

Tim Forrest: 1:31:21

I'm like all right, I'll go with you if you need me to

Amanda Benbow Lunn: 1:31:24

Twist my arm.

Tim Forrest: 1:31:25

Yeah, and I mix it up too.

Amanda Benbow Lunn: 1:31:26

What's a simple thing that always makes you laugh or smile?

Tim Forrest: 1:31:26

It's the little things it really is. It's, you know, where somebody says something that was not. They didn't mean to say it a certain way and it came out wrong. Then they try to backtrack. I think that's funny when somebody, somebody, looks at somebody else when they say something like, huh, you know, for some reason, I think it's funny. Honestly, one of the things that I fell in love with my wife about was we first started dating. She's like, well, I do improv, you know, and she actually took courses in that in the city we met, and so I actually went to see her one night and I still, to this day, just laugh about this, the way that happened.

Amanda Benbow Lunn: 1:32:00

Coffee or tea.

Tim Forrest: 1:32:01

Both Time of day. Coffee in the morning like a tea. In the afternoon. I get a good hot tea and it's good. Thanks a latte.

Tim Forrest: 1:32:14

It's my. They do really good teas and coffee.

Tim Forrest: 1:32:15

I'm anxious to try the new location over near Oak View near 12 Oaks,

Amanda Benbow Lunn: 1:32:17

morning person or night owl?

Tim Forrest: 1:32:18

Walking at 4.30.

Tim Forrest: 1:32:18

Kind of self-answers, that one.

Tim Forrest: 1:32:20

My wife's a night owl, I'm a morning person, so yep.

Amanda Benbow Lunn: 1:32:23

Makes it interesting.

Tim Forrest: 1:32:24

It does.

Amanda Benbow Lunn: 1:32:24

Mountains or beach.

Tim Forrest: 1:32:26

Yes, please. I like the mountains a lot, but I also enjoy the beach differently. Like the mountains, I love hiking. Like the boys have been hiking the Appalachians, the Rockies, the, you know, parts of the Mindless Sea Trail. We've done a lot of backpacking the last several years and that's been just great and wonderful. The views are phenomenal. Good snow is beautiful up in the mountains. However, the beach, walking, the beach waves washing over your feet while you're walking, sitting in the sand watching the seagulls do the thing, Priceless

Amanda Benbow Lunn: 1:32:56

Books or podcast?

Tim Forrest: 1:32:57

oh, I enjoy a good book if it's before bedtime but a good podcast, especially driving.

Tim Forrest: 1:33:00

You know you're driving, just got to go a distance and listen to a good podcast. It gets you thinking. I can visualize it better than a book sometimes, but I think both are great. But these days I've been doing more podcasts and books.

Amanda Benbow Lunn: 1:33:10

Okay, dogs or cats?

Tim Forrest: 1:33:12

We're a dog family. We have a golden doodle. She's a 75-pound lap dog. Love her to death. Wouldn't trade her for the world.

Amanda Benbow Lunn: 1:33:18

Perfect. Well, that brings this candidate conversation to a close. Thank you so much, Tim, for taking the time to sit down with me and go over and answer these questions, share your thoughts and your platform, and I wish you the best of luck with the election.

Tim Forrest: 1:33:41

Thank you, Amanda. Thank you, I appreciate it.

Amanda Benbow Lunn: 1:33:41

Local elections are where democracy lives closest to home. The decisions and actions of our mayors, the Holly Springs Town Council and the Fuquay-Varina Board of Commissioners influence the services we rely on each day, the safety of our streets, the character of our neighborhoods and even the future direction of our communities. Democracy is at the heart of all we hold dear. Our local governments set priorities that touch everyday life. They pass ordinances, fund our fire and police departments, set property tax structures and shape the look and feel of our towns. Because turnout is often lower in municipal elections, every ballot cast carries even greater weight. Here's what you need to know for 2025.

Amanda Benbow Lunn: 1:34:17

The voter registration deadline is October 10th, unless you register at an early voting site. Early voting begins October 16th at the Wake County Board of Elections office in Raleigh. Additional sites open on October 25th, including the John M Brown Community Center in Apex and the Avery Street Recreation Center in Garner. Those two will be the closest to us in Holly Springs and Fuquay Varina. Early voting concludes on Saturday, November 1st. Please note that this year only includes two Saturdays, October 25th and November 1st, and one, Sunday, October 26th. The last day to request a mail-in absentee ballot is October 21st and election day itself is Tuesday, November 4th, where you'll need to cast your vote at your assigned precinct. Please remember you will need a valid ID to vote.

Amanda Benbow Lunn: 1:35:06

That wraps up another NC Deep Dive candidate conversation. You can find all of our 2025 municipal election interviews at www. ncdeepdive. com, as well as on Spotify, apple Podcasts, audible or wherever you currently listen to podcasts. Show notes will include links to candidates, voter resources and election information. If you find these conversations helpful, please subscribe, share them with friends or family and consider leaving a rating or review. Spreading the word in your local spaces helps strengthen informed participation across our communities. If you have thoughts or topics you'd like us to explore, reach out on social media or email us anytime at ncdeepdive@ gmailcom.

Amanda Benbow Lunn: 1:35:51

I'm grateful you spent this time with me today. Staying informed is how we shape communities worth calling home. Your choices matter, your perspective matters and you matter. Your ballot is your voice, and both carry more power than you might imagine. Democracy isn't passive. It only works when we each show up. Thank you for helping me to make it thrive. May we continue to work together to build stronger, more vibrant communities to live, work and play in Ones we can all be proud to call home. Until next time, my friends namaste, the love and light in me sees and honors the love and light in you.