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Steven Moore will take over as principal at Fuquay-Varina Elementary. Moore has been an assistant principal at Timber Drive Elementary since 2006.

Click below for more information (including the salaries) of the new school leaders:

http://blogs.newsobserver.com/wakeed/garner-high-and-other-new-principals

Gill says board members relied on the recommendation of area superintendent Lloyd Gardner in approving Cook’s hiring.

“We didn’t get any information on the other candidates. We were told that he was the administration’s choice,” Gill said.

Since the resignation, Cook has served as interim principal at Garner, she said. He is also an alum of the school.

Note: An earlier version of this report incorrectly said that the school board approved Cook’s hire today. The board voted Tuesday evening.

The march is in response to the shooting death of June P. Carlyle, 49, in Garner on February 24. Tuesday’s march is the first silent march led by the Wake County Domestic Violence Task Force. A march will take place on a Tuesday after every domestic violence homicide in Wake County.

Jose Manuel Valdez-Masias, 44, has been charged with first-degree murder by the Wake County Sheriff’s Office, in connection with Carlyle’s death. Authorities say the incident was a domestic dispute.

Organizers want to raise awareness about domestic violence and the local programs and services available to victims and their families.

WHAT: Silent March for Domestic Violence Awareness
WHEN: Tuesday, March 31, 2009 at 5:15 p.m.
WHERE: Starting in front of the Wake County Courthouse at 316 Fayetteville St., Raleigh
CONTACT: Damita Chambers (Interact) at 919-865-1616 (direct) or damitac@interactofwake.org

There were six domestic violence homicides in Wake County in 2008, according to the North Carolina Coalition Against Domestic Violence.

The link below includes additional information:

http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/4826610/

Garner Magnet High School is one of ten Wake schools that have the program in place, according to published reports.

At least one Garner Town Council member has voiced interest in providing some town funds to keep the program afloat if it is cut.

http://www.garnerclayton.com/news/story/472.html

Emergency personnel closed a segment of Aversboro Road for about 30 minutes earlier today. At around 11:30 a.m., a contractor damaged a natural gas line while digging near a sidewalk in the 1400 block of the street, police said.

The area in front of Garner Towne Square was briefly filled with the smell of gas fumes. By noon, the road reopened to traffic.

As of late Wednesday, it is unknown how the leak was remedied. Attempts to reach the Garner Fire Volunteer Department as of Wednesday evening were unsuccessful.

]]> http://garnercitizennews.wordpress.com/2009/03/26/gas-leak-briefly-closes-part-of-aversboro-road/feed/ 0 GarnerCitizenNews.com 3-26-09-gas-leak http://garnercitizennews.wordpress.com/2009/03/23/police-looking-into-spree-of-car-break-ins-in-lakemoor/ http://garnercitizennews.wordpress.com/2009/03/23/police-looking-into-spree-of-car-break-ins-in-lakemoor/#comments Mon, 23 Mar 2009 20:22:23 +0000 GarnerCitizenNews.com http://garnercitizennews.wordpress.com/?p=321 ]]> The Garner Police Department is investigating thirteen car break-ins which occurred overnight in the Lakemoor Subdivision. In each instance, the victim vehicle was left unlocked.  Items stolen included GPS systems, car radios, wallets, and cash. At this time there is no known suspect information.

Residents are urged to take simple precautions to protect their property.  Vehicle owners are reminded to lock their cars and remove valuables from them.  If the valuables cannot be removed from the car, owners should at least lock valuables in the trunk or place them out of sight. Authorities encourage owners to create a list of make, brand, and serial numbers for any items that are left in the car.  

Anyone with information on these crimes or other crimes in Garner should call the Garner Police at 919-772-8810 or Crime Stoppers at 919-226-2724.

City Editor

Town Hall is trying to stay a step ahead of Garner’s organized running races.

In anticipation of more events, the Town Council unanimously approved a new special events support policy on Monday, March 16. A group of town department heads created the new rules in order to handle requests for races and other special events that require taxpayer-provided services.

“This is a realization that there is a cost to providing these events. …It allows us to make some rational decisions about what we should pay as a town and what private event organizers should pay and whether there should be some cost-sharing arrangement,” Garner Police Chief Tom Moss said.  

Until now, determining the extent of town support for special events has been mostly an informal process.

“[Previously] it was done on an ad-hoc basis,” Town Manager Hardin Watkins said. With more demand, the town needs to become more efficient in how it evaluates requests, he said.

The new rules define the monetary cost of supplying the police and public works service that is required to help events run smoothly. It costs the town $36 an hour to supply a police officer at an event and $18 an hour to provide a cruiser.

“If you have a large 10K race, it could very well take 15 to 20 police officers to cover that. …You can’t just pull that together at the last moment,” Moss said.

In writing the policy, Moss researched those of other municipalities – including Raleigh, which holds 53 road races a year.

“We may never reach that, but we went from zero to two and now three this year.”

 Prior arrangements exempt

But a few at Town Hall are concerned the policy may treat some community groups unfairly.

Mayor Ronnie Williams is bothered by a section of the policy that exempts some groups from undergoing the new application process.

Dubbed “community programming partners,” these groups have an existing “contractual agreement and budgeted arrangement” to hold special events, according to the policy.

“It is going to get real fuzzy when we determine who will be grandfathered and who will not,” Williams said.

The policy includes a formula for determining the cost of police and town services based on the size of the event and the facilities used – unless a group has a contract with the town.

“The policy is not going to apply to them if [those services] are part of a contract,” Moss said. “If they have an arrangement on the cost of that facility or what they pay for its use then there is no need to apply this policy to them because we’ve already covered everything related to that in their contract.”

Williams doubts that will sit well with groups who don’t have prior agreements; he thinks it is unfair.

“If one group can partner with the town, it is the town’s obligation to partner with everybody,” Williams said.

As of press time, town officials could not provide complete information on the number of agencies and groups considered community programming partners under the new policy. Staff is compiling the list of exempted groups for the Council to review before the policy goes into effect July 1.

The Town Council unanimously approved the policy, though it had not been shown to any outside organizations.

“When they see it, I have a suspicion that people will have questions about equal treatment,” said Williams, who does not vote.

Watkins denied that the policy is an example of grandfathering – a term he says has negative connotations.

Groups will be exempt from the policy only as long as they continue providing the programs they’ve offered in the past, he said.

“As long as you’re in your current line of business, you’re exempt. If you step outside that, you may not be.”