Cary, NC has added another national designation to its long lists of awards – Cary has been deemed ‘Walk Friendly‘ by Walk Friendly Communities, a national recognition program recognizing communities working to improve a wide range of conditions related to walking, including safety, mobility, access, and comfort.

When I first saw the news about Cary being ‘walk friendly’ I paused….mainly because I’m used to seeing walkscore ratings – walkscore is a service used to rate how convenient it is to walk from a given house to parks,restaurants, employment etc – and while Cary is a great place to live it’s a town where the average resident gets in their car to drive to work or eat etc.

Turns out that walking from your house to a restaurant is not the type of walk friendly environment they were assessing.  Cary earned the recognition for excelling at providing  walking trails between communities, parks, schools called the Cary Greenway System.

When was the last time you checked out one of Cary’s greenway trails?

Town of Cary  Fourth of July Fireworks have been rescheduled for Tuesday July 5th at the normal Koka Booth Amphitheater location – gates will open at 7pm with fireworks at 9pm. The NC Symphony will not be playing.

CaryRealEstate.com reports The annual town of Cary fireworks were canceled when rain and thunderstorms fell on the Koka Booth Amphitheater at Cary’s Regency Park monday night.

Smoke from NC wildfires impacts Town of Cary outdoor activities

The Town of Cary has canceled all outdoor sports programs and activities, including softball, baseball, sand volleyball and tennis, for tonight due to smoky skies and low air quality as defined by the North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources.  Programs and activities scheduled for tomorrow morning and afternoon will be held as scheduled since they can be moved indoors as needed. Participants will be contacted directly in the event of a cancellation. A decision regarding tomorrow evening’s parks, recreation and cultural resources outdoor programs that begin after 5 p.m. will be made by 3 p.m.  Athletic program cancellations will be listed at (919) 319-4500 or visit games.townofcary.org.

Cary NC smells like fire today as smoke from NC wildfires in other parts of the state blow in

The Town of Cary is enveloped in smoke from North Carolina wildfires today, it looks like a thick fog but one step outside tells you something’s burning! So what is on fire in Cary? Where is all the smoke coming from – can you believe it’s the wildfires in other parts of North Carolina! All of the smoke in Cary today has triggered lots of calls into the Cary 911 system – in fact the Town of Cary has released the following press release:

WIND BLOWS IN SMOKE FROM WILDFIRES IN PENDER, DARE COUNTIES

The haze and smell of smoke Cary residents are experiencing is the result of fires outside of the Town, including wildfires in Pender and Dare counties and a controlled burn at Fort Bragg. While citizens are encouraged to call 911 if they see smoke or flames coming directly from a structure, vehicle or wooded area, please use care before calling 911 about smoke in the area. The Town of Cary’s Communications Center (911) has received a large volume of calls due to the wildfires.

The Cary / Raleigh real estate markets have the greatest chance of appreciation according to results released today from Forbes magazine.

In a ’10 Markets Most Likely to Appreciate’ report,Forbes magazine turned to real estate research firm Local Market Monitor to figure out which markets have the greatest likelihood of price appreciation because they offer a mix of jobs weighted toward growth industries.

1. Cary – Raleigh North Carolina

2. McAllen-Edinburg-Mission, Texas
3. Austin-Round Rock, Texas
4. Nashville-Davidson-Murfreesboro-Franklin, Tenn.
5. San Antonio, Texas
6. Colorado Springs, Colo.
7. Albuquerque, N.M.
8. Denver-Aurora-Broomfield, Colo.
9. Springfield, Mo.
10. Indianapolis-Carmel, Ind.

source: Forbes, Francesca Levy (09/13/2010)

CaryRealEstate.com is proud to promote another reason that Cary North Carolina is a great place to live!  The Town of Cary has just announced the Cary Fire Department ranks as one of the best in the country!

Cary Fire Department Earns International Re-accreditation

CARY, NC – The Town of Cary Fire Department has again been granted international re-accreditation by the Commission on Fire Accreditation International (CFAI). The Commission unanimously approved the Fire Department’s application at its meeting in Chicago. The Town of Cary Fire Department was initially accredited in 1999 and was last re accredited in 2005. The department is one of only 148 fire/rescue agencies in the world to achieve the accredited agency status.

“We are extremely proud to be reaffirmed as a top fire/rescue agency,” said Fire Chief Allan Cain. “Every day, our staff remains focused on providing the best fire protection and rescue services possible to our citizens.”

“We have an exemplary department, and I very much appreciate the staff’s continued commitment to the highest level of professionalism as they risk their lives to provide a safe and enjoyable environment for our citizens,” said Town Manager Ben Shivar.

This past June, a peer review team conducted an on-site visit of the Town of Cary Fire Department, evaluating the agency’s self-assessment manual, community risk analysis, standard of coverage and business plan. The assessment inspects every aspect of Cary’s fire program, including governance and administration, assessment and planning, goals and objectives, financial resources, programs, physical resources, human resources, training and competency, essential resources and external system relationships.

The Cary Fire Department is comprised of 209 full-time employees with a fleet of 15 primary and support vehicles available to respond as needed. The department was originally created in 1921, and until 1960, functioned on an all-volunteer basis with support from the Town and annual fundraisers. Prior to its creation, the Town of Cary relied on the Raleigh Fire Department for its fire and rescue services. For fiscal year 2009, the Cary Fire Department’s annual budget was $16.6 million and the department responded to nearly 7,000 fire and first responder calls. Each year, the Cary Fire Department hosts a week-long fire prevention program, and will expand its services with the new Fire Station 8, set to open fall 2012.

The mission of CFAI is to assist and improve fire and emergency service agencies around the world in achieving organizational and professional excellence through its strategic self-assessment model and accreditation process to provide continuous quality improvement and enhancement of service delivery to the community and the world at large. The CFAI program is a comprehensive self-assessment and evaluation model that enables fire and emergency service organizations to examine past, current and future service levels and performance and compare them to industry best practices.

In addition to its fire department, the Town of Cary’s Police and Parks, Recreation and Cultural Resources Departments are also nationally accredited.

Town of Cary is asking it’s citizens to take a few minutes to nominate Cary for Google’s new fiber optic internet service.

Below is the re-post from the Town of Cary press release:

To help boost its chances for success, the Town of Cary is asking Cary citizens to nominate their community to Internet search-engine great, Google, as the first and only location to install its blazing-fast experimental fiber-optic network.  The connection promises to deliver data at 1 gigabit per second; that’s roughly 50 to 300 times faster than current DSL, cable and fiber-optic networks that connect most U.S. homes to the Internet. Simply go to Google’s nomination page and complete the short survey. The last day to nominate Cary is Friday, March 26.

PRIMARY CONTACTS:
Bill Stice, Director of Technology Services, (919) 469-4027
Deanna Boone, Deputy Public Information Officer, (919) 462-3908
Susan Moran, Public Information Officer, (919) 460-4951

The Town of Cary has announced that work will begin on March 15th to complete 3 missing sections of Morrisville Parkway. The Morrisville Parkway Extension will connect the dots between Morrisville Parkway and Davis Drive all the way to NC Hwy 55.

Currently there are standalone sections of Morrisville Pkwy.  The 3 missing pieces include a section between Davis Drive and  a standalone section of Morrisville Parkway that has previously only been accessible from inside of the Preston Village subdivision.  The work is scheduled to be complete by the end of 2010.   In my opinion this will be a great benefit to overall traffic flow, connecting Davis Drive to NC Hwy 55.  There will be a trade-off for a few sections of homes in the Preston Village and Preston LakeridgeTownhomes communities – they will have much greater access to major highways but will have increased traffic – for years the small standalone section of Morrisville Pkwy has been very quietly tucked away inside of the Preston Village subdivision.

Garmin is opening their first office in the Cary -Raleigh-Durham area of NC – they have chosen the very popular Regency area in Cary – Garmin has leased about 14,000 square feet in one of the Regency office buildings – according to the Garmin press release it will be a research and development facility. The new Garmin jobs will mostly be in the engineering field.

Garmin plans to occupy their new Cary office in April – the Cary Town Council is scheduled to discuss a possible financial incentive to Garmin for the new Cary office.

We welcome Garmin to the Cary area – what a smart choice for their new office!

Congratulations to local Cary resident Josh Svoboda & his partners that won $650,000 for their winning Doritos Super Bowl Commercial - “Underdog”!

I was pulling for the group not only because of their local Cary ties but due to my friendship with Josh’s mother Cindy and his brother DJ – I volunteer with both of them at Hope Community Church.

Josh isn’t the only one in the family with creative talent – Josh’s autistic brother DJ travels on a regular basis, sharing his testimony and his story of how he has embraced his autism by creating his very own company – myimagiville.com

The winning commercial was filmed at Cary’s Fred G. Bond Park off High House Road.  The group also won a runner-up spot for ‘Kids These Days” – filmed at Cary’s Waverly Place Shopping Center.

Thanks for Reading our Cary Real Estate Blog. Post Authored By: David Williams

David’s a Licensed North Carolina Realtor & The Voice of CaryRealEstate.com

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