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Welcome to the

Apex Peak Academy

blog

What is Peak Academy?

The Apex Peak Academy is a 12-session, interactive program that strives to foster transparency, trust, information-sharing, and collaboration between the residents and representatives of the Town of Apex by educating citizens on Town operations and Council processes, explaining the development and the planning process and discussing the Town budget and the ways Town staff utilizes tax dollars.


What is the Peak Academy Blog?

The purpose of this blog is to give a little more insight into the 12 different sessions that Peak Academy residents attend. Click on any of the sessions below to read about what the 2023 class has learned from each Town of Apex department! If you'd like to know more about Peak Academy, including how to apply for the 2024 class, click here.

Peak Academy Session #1 - Orientation, Administration, and DEI

1. What’s in a name? (Whatever you want evidently)


Like most, I believed that if a municipality had town, city, or village in their name that it directly correlated with the size of their population. However, Shawn Purvis, Apex Deputy Town Manager, informed us that there is absolutely no correlation! A governing body can just choose to put town, city, or village within their name no matter the size of their population. So, within North Carolina we can have the Town of Apex (approx. 70,000 residents) and the City of Creswell (approx. 206 residents). Honestly what a zinger of a fact!


2. The Language of Apex


Have you heard of our Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) department? Their mission is to provide consultation and education to ensure a community of belonging, diverse representation among employees, and that residents have equitable access to services. Linda Graham Jones, Director of DEI and Celeste Sherer, DEI Coordinator shared about their participation in the Local Government Language Access Collaborative Program. This program is a one-year interactive course designed to build capacity for North Carolina local governments to communicate with residents in community languages. Aside from English, the top three household languages spoken in the Apex area are Spanish (estimated 5,124 households), Telugu (2,863 households), and Chinese (2,4525 households). Through the knowledge gained from this assessment, the Town can now move forward with better communication strategies and further create a warm and welcoming community.


3. The Peak of the Peak


Part of the first Peak Academy session was a tour around the Town Hall campus and beyond. We got an insider’s view of Apex Town Hall and the Halle Cultural Arts Center. The Strollway is a paved path that connects the two points, and along the way we stopped at the Tunstall House. We learned about the rich history of the Tunstall House, and the fact that the house sits on the highest point of Apex – meaning it truly is the peak of the peak. The house, built in 1872, has been home to a few of Apex’s influential families that are represented in its full name: The Thompson-Utley-Fletcher-Tunstall house. The Town now owns the Tunstall house and restoration plans are in the beginning stages. It will be exciting to see what the house will look like fully restored!


Peak Academy Session #1 -

Fire Department

1.Fighting fires and so much more


While most people recognize that a Fire Department responds to emergency calls involving fire, our Apex Fire Department also does quite a bit more. AFD is an ‘All-Hazard Emergency Response Department’ meaning that they respond to emergency calls involving fire, medical emergencies, hazardous materials, and technical rescue which is defined as rescues involving ropes, confined spaces, vehicle/machinery, structural collapse, and trench and water rescues. Our Fire Department also handles non-emergency calls that deal with risk reduction, such as fire inspections and educating the public, and pre-incident planning, which are plans that help responders effectively manage emergencies in a way that maximizes protection for occupants, responders, property, and the environment. Our AFD provides these services to the Town of Apex which is a defined 25.68 square miles with a 70,000+ population as well as the Apex Rural Fire District (Hipex) that is 40.4 square miles with a 4,000+ population.


2.The 2022 Data is in


Now that we’ve discussed the multitude of services our Apex Fire Department offers the Town and beyond, let’s dive into the AFD 2022 stats. In 2022, AFD serviced a total population of 74,063 people in a 66.2 square mile service area. Within the 66.2 square miles AFD has 6 Fire Stations with an accumulation of 34,173 hours of staff training in just the past year. Last year there was a total of 4,485 calls and, like we said above, not all of those calls were pertaining to fires. In 2022 there were 117 fire calls, 2,017 medical emergency calls, 139 hazardous calls (calls dealing with hazardous materials), 382 vehicle accidents, 335 service calls (calls requiring assistance in non-emergency situations), 50 technical rescue calls, and 49 calls dealing with electrical issues. I don’t know about you, but to me that feels like a LOT of services provided in just one year.



3.The History of Apex Fire


The Apex Volunteer Fire Department was chartered in 1939 when one of the founding members experienced a fire in his barn and became frustrated with how long it took for help to reach him. There were 19 founding members that helped fight fires within the Town limits. The Town started employing firefighters as paid employees in the early 1980’s, and didn’t have a paid Fire Chief position until 1993, over 50 years after the Volunteer Fire Department was founded. The Town just recently disbanded the Volunteer Firefighter department, but thanks to those brave residents who served throughout over 80 years of Apex history, we have our Fire Department that we know and love today. If you’re interested in learning more about the history of our Fire Department, click here.



Peak Academy Session #4 -

Water Resources

1. Clean water starts from the very beginning


Our fourth Peak Academy session was all about water and the many facets (no, not faucets) that our Water Resources department covers. Mike Deaton, Water Resources Director, shared with us that his department is broken up into four divisions: Stormwater Engineering, Utility Engineering, Water and Sewer Operations, and Water Reclamation. You might only think of our Stormwater department after a storm has already passed through Apex, but a lot of their work is actually preventative and starts before a storm is even brewing. James Misciagno, Environmental Field Services Supervisor and Jessica Bolin, Environmental Engineering Mgr shared with us that our Stormwater division is heavily involved with any new construction that is being built within the Apex town limits to assure that our stormwater stays clean as construction starts, during the construction process, and then even after the construction is completed through the use of ‘Stormwater Control Measures’ or SCMs. It’s important to keep our stormwater clean because the runoff from storms travels into our streams which eventually lead into our larger bodies, like Jordan Lake, which is Apex’s main source of water. If our stormwater stays clean from the very beginning then that’s less contaminants and pollutants our water facilities have to filter through.


2. Quality water for quality people


After the overview lesson of the Water Resources department, we traveled over to the Public Works building where John Osegueda, Water Quality Supervisor, Paul Titus, Utility Technician, and CJ Jones, Utility Maintenance Worker had prepared a water quality testing demonstration for us. While our water facilities do a great job at keeping our water clean, it is mandated by the state that we check our water frequently and test for any common contaminants. We have ____ sampling stations all around Apex to make sure that the water is tested from all corners of our Town. If you ever want to learn more about Apex’s water quality and the steps that are taken between the water coming from Jordan Lake to your faucets you can take a look at our Annual Drinking Water Quality Report.


3. FOG in our pipes? Not on our watch


I’ll give you three guesses as to what FOG stands for…if you guessed Fats, Oils, and Grease then color me impressed! FOG is one of the leading causes of sewage backups and sewer pipe erosion. In fact, Jimmy Cornell, Utilities Operations Manager shared with us that about 65% of the sewage back-ups we see in Apex are caused by excess amounts of fats, oils, and grease in our pipes. Jess Sloan, Water Resources Program Coordinator gave a presentation to our group about how our Water Resources department has been implementing preventive measures called Grease Interceptors which essentially work to separate the FOG materials from the water in areas that would have high FOG content such as streets and plazas with a lot of restaurants in the vicinity. Here’s how you can help keep FOG out of our pipes as a local resident: pour/scrape excess grease into a container such as a food can or glass jar and dispose of it in the garbage and make sure that you place food scraps in waste containers, garbage bags, or start your own compost pile!


Peak Academy Session #5 -

Electric Utilities

1. Public Power and Power for the Public


Even if you’re new to North Carolina, you’re bound to have heard about Duke Energy by now. One of the leading sources of power within the state, Duke provides electricity to 3.7 million NC customers. Not included in those 3.7 million customers? Majority of Apex residents and businesses. Over 100 years ago Apex officials decided to get into the public power game and laid the groundwork for the majority of Apex to receive electricity through the Town. Public power is based on public ownership and local control instead of being share-holder focused. Ultimately it means that we’re able to keep the electric bills low and because our electricity is cared for locally (through our Electric Utilities Department) if there’s an outage your power will be turned on much more quickly than through a company that needs to service triple the area size.


2. Up Above, Down Below, and All-Around


There are two main ways that electricity is brought to a building, with power lines hung through the air or through the ground. The standard practice for line workers is to receive training in only one of these areas of expertise, however, in Apex, our line workers are trained and certified to tend to both types of power lines. This unique type of cross-training allows our Electric Utilities Department (EUD) to be able to work with any type of power and service the Apex community as a whole. Our EUD lays the groundwork (literally) for power to run through the ground as well as through the air, including digging and securing power line poles, attaching all power lines to a transformer, installing electric meters, and then keeping all of the lines, transformers, and meters in good shape. They truly do it all!


3. Trees, Bees, and Electricity


If you didn’t know, Apex maintains a certification as a Bee City as well as a Tree City. This means that on top of maintaining our power, our EUD also manages vegetation and the sustainability of our Apex pollinators. Being a Tree City means that we have four arborists working in our EUD that help maintain trees around Town. Part of our Arborist's work is to make sure that there aren’t any trees or vegetation growing too close to our power lines, which can mean limbs touching the power lines in the air or roots touching the power lines in the ground. They also provide resources for the community about what kind of trees work best in our climate and how to take care of them to prevent damage to personal and public property. Going hand in hand with being a Tree City, our EUD also helps maintain our Bee City USA status. The goal of being a Bee City is to help sustain pollinators by increasing native plants (such as our dogwood trees), providing nest sites, and reducing the use of pesticides.


Peak Academy Session #6 -

Parks, Recreation, and Cultural Resources

1. On our Turf


You may have noticed that, instead of grass, many of our parks include turf fields that are available for various types of activities. Artificial turf is a surface of synthetic fibers made to look like natural grass and as our parks expand, the Town has been opting for turf fields over natural grass fields. Turf fields are durable and require less maintenance and they allow for almost no rain out games. Since the fields don’t need to be closed for maintenance as often, artificial turf allows for the fields to be rented more often than a regular grass field. Overall, turf fields allow the Town to save on maintenance, create an opportunity for frequent rentals, and allows our fields to be used for multiple types of activities.


2. What’s in a Park?


The beautiful thing about Apex is that we have a variety of different parks. If you were ever interested in hosting an event in an outdoor space the Town has seven different parks available for rent. Renting out part of a park can include a pavilion, picnic tables, baseball fields, soccer fields, and more. With such a large range of parks there’s a little something for any type of get together. With the opening of Pleasant Park, Apex will be able to hold full and multi-day tournaments that can include use of the scoreboard and team rooms as well. If there’s any pickleball fans out there, Pleasant Park will add an additional 6 courts to Apex that can be rented out for all day events. If you’re interested in renting out part of a park, you can visit here for more information.


3. The future of our Parks


I know there’s a lot of interest around when Pleasant Park will be open to the public. I don’t have that answer for you, but if you’d like to keep reading I can tell you a few of the awesome amenities Pleasant Park will be bringing to the Town. Pleasant Park consists of 92-acres that will include a 1.5-acre Enchanted Forest made up of 8 play villages including a sticks and stone nature play area and a splashpad. There will be 6 lighted multi-purpose synthetic turf fields (and we all know what that means!) as well as 4 lighted tennis courts and 6 pickleball courts. There will also be a full 3.1-mile cross country course around the perimeter of the park that winds through parts of the woods. While the future of Pleasant Park is very exciting, our other existing parks also have an exciting future. Plans are in the works for a bike track to be added to Hunter Street Park. The track will include an off-road bike skills course as well as a pump track. In partnership with the Carolina Hurricanes, there will be 2 street hockey rinks added to the Apex Community Park within the next few years. Overall, there are a lot of new and exciting things coming to our Apex Parks! Thank you to the Parks and Rec staff that took their time to show our Peak Academy group around and for all of the work they do to maintain our Parks while also working on creating a brighter future for each and every one of our Parks.



Peak Academy Session #7 -

Police Department

1. The Logistics of the Police Department

Majority of people have at least a vague idea of the duties a Police Department provides for a community. Our 7th Peak Academy session, which was with the Apex Police Department, provided some deeper insight in all the many divisions of the Police. Below you can find a flow chart of our Police Department and a few of each division’s duties.
























2. Calling all Call Centers

Have you ever wondered what happens when you call 9-1-1? The first thing is that your call will be routed to the Cary Emergency Communications Center. This 911 Center is one of 126 Public Safety Answering Points (PSAP) in North Carolina. The Center has a unified dispatching system that helps reroute all calls to the closest communication center to the caller’s location. After that the Apex Communications Center which falls under the Administrative Division of our Police Department, receives the call and then dispatches the help that is needed. Our Administrative Division is comprised of four teams that work 12-hour shifts. These teams accept all police related calls, whether it’s 9-1-1 or the non-emergency line. In 2022 our Communications Center dispatched 19,363 calls for service.


3. Dogs, Drones, and Dialects

As you can see above, the duties of our Police Department are quite extensive. The everyday shift can look different from one officer to the next and some of the calls for service might not be able to be handled within just one team. This is where some of the extra measures our Police Department have developed step in. APD uses a high-powered drone when they need to search for a suspect or a missing person. The drone is able to cover far more reach than the average person on foot and uses a lot less man power with just a single officer required to fly it. The drone is also able to reach a height of 400 feet which helps immensely when there’s a need to take in the surroundings of a large area. Our Police Department files the drone within the 4th amendment rights which means that they can’t lawfully fly the drone over a residency without proper paperwork such as a search warrant. APD is also supported by a K-9 unit. There are currently 3 K-9 officers working within our Police Department, each with their own handler who trains them and takes care of them after hours. The K-9 officers help with searching for people, searching property for illegal goods, and can also be found patrolling the community with their handler as part of community outreach and education. If an officer responds to a call and the person in need of service speaks a different language, our officers have access to a help center that has interpreters on call 24/7. They also have a sign language interpreter that can be called into the station when needed.



Peak Academy Session #8-

Inspections and Permits

1. Keeping the codes up to code


The primary responsibility of our Inspections and Permits Department is to enforce North Carolina state building codes as required by general statue and adopted by the building code council and they do that by reviewing and approving building plans, perform field inspections, and serve as a resource to the Town and its citizens for questions related to state and local codes, or related to the building construction industry. While IPD keeps your buildings up to code, who’s keeping the codes up to code? The General Statute 143-139 tasks the Department of Insurance with overseeing the NC state codes. Electric codes are updated every 3 years and all other codes are updated every 6 years in order to keep your buildings as safe as possible!


2. Inspections and Expectations


Apex’s Inspections and Permits department was established in 1973. If ’73 sounds familiar it might be because Apex was incorporated as a Town in 1873. So that means we didn’t have uniform building inspections until the Town was 100 years old! In the present day, there’s never a shortage of things to do for our Inspections and Permits Department. Between our 2 commercial inspectors and 10 residential inspectors, we are currently averaging about 180 inspections a day. In 2022 they issued 4,367 permits and are expected to issue close to 4,722 permits in 2023. If those numbers astound you, think about how many inspections they do a year! The number of inspections doesn’t always correlate with the number of permits issued since not every inspection is passed on the first go.


3. It all begins with the Permitting Desk


If you have an idea for a project, but don’t know how to get started, it’s always a good idea to start with the Permitting Desk. Located on the first floor of Town Hall and staffed by two full-time and one part-time employee, the Permitting Desk can point you in the right direction at the beginning of your project. They can receive permit applications, asses and collect fees, and schedule inspections. They also have helpful pamphlets like the ‘Guide to planning and constructing an attached or self-supported deck’ available for anyone to take home. If you’re asking yourself ‘How do I even know if I need a permit?’ don’t worry! They have a take home pamphlet on that as well. The Permitting Desk is open to the community Monday-Friday, 8 a.m. – 5 p.m. and are more than happy to help you get started on your dream project!




Peak Academy Session #9-

Planning

1. Planning and…Public Health?


When asked, ‘So what do you do for work?’ it can be hard for our Planning department to sum up the 100+ responsibilities they fulfill for the Town into one simple sentence. Diane Khin, our Planning Director, defines ‘Planning’ as a profession that works to improve the welfare of people in their communities by creating more convenient, equitable, healthful, efficient, and attractive places for present and future generations. Before WWI Planning and Public Health were one in the same. Local governments realized they needed to help shape cities to be less vulnerable to industrial waste and disease and achieved that through urban planning. Today, Planning Departments include goals and objectives that promote public health into their comprehensive plans. These long-term plans impact how people make choices of where to live and how to get around, their ability to access healthy foods and opportunities for physical activity, and affect broader issues of social equity, clean air and water, and more.


2. Land Use vs Zoning and which one are we using?


The simple answer to the above question is both, but for the more in-depth answer we need to back up a few steps. The first thing to note is that North Carolina is a Dillon Rule State, meaning that states give limited powers to local government to make or decide which policies are appropriate for the communities. The Town of Apex can only do what the State of North Carolina General Assembly allows them to do. Following the Dillon Rule, the State of North Carolina allows towns the ability to adopt and follow a Comprehensive Plan, often referred to as ‘Comp Plans’. Comp plans typically include things such as; Land Use, Transportation, Housing, Economic Development, Historic and Environmental Preservation, and Infrastructure. Our current Comp plan (Advance Apex: The 2045 Plan) includes a Land Use map which is a policy adopted to guide future growth. The Land Use map is not law, but rather the vision for what the community would like to see happen in the future. Zoning is not a policy, but rather a law that development must follow. Rezonings allow public input at public hearings in front of the Planning Board (who are appointed volunteers) and Town Council (who are elected officials. Rezonings are not required by state law to follow the Land Use map in order to be approved, but once the property is rezoned, the Land Use map is updated to the corresponding land use. That’s a lot to follow! The gist of it is, Land Use maps are the dream and Rezonings are the reality. The dream can guide the reality, but ultimately reality is the driving force and the dream adapts accordingly.


3. Another one rides the bus


One of the major roles for our Long Range Planners, a division of our Planning Department, is Transportation Plan implementation. Long Range planning transportation is the process of looking out 20-30 years and establishing a vision for the overall transportation network. Long Range planners work closely with Current Planners (another division of our Planning Department) to ensure that development, such as the building or reconstruction of new or existing roadways, is consistent with the Town’s Transportation Plan. One of the most current projects that our Long Range and Current Planners have worked closely on is our GoApex bus, Apex’s very first public transit system. GoApex actually just celebrated it’s first year in service at the time of this 2023 Peak Academy session. In the first year, GoApex had over 12,000 riders, offers Door to Door service, 6 day a week hourly service from 6 am – 10 pm, and is FREE to all riders. The next step for our Planning Department regarding the GoApex bus is to compile the first year’s data, create a prioritization study, and then gather public feedback in order to decide what future routes and stops the community needs.


Peak Academy Session #10-

Internal Services: Budget & Performance, Communications, Finance, Human Resources, IT


1. Budget & Communications


Thanks to our rapidly growing population, the Town has been adding new departments into their local government structure. During our Internal Services Peak Academy session, we heard from two of newer departments, Budget & Performance and Communications who are both in their first year of being a stand-alone department. Our Budget & Performance department consists of 8 positions; Director, Amanda Grogan who presented this session, a Lead Budget & Performance Analyst, three Budget & Performance Analyst positions, a Budget & Management Intern, and a Sustainability Program Coordinator who works with a Sustainability Specialist. Compared to the 8 Budget & Performance positions, our Communications team comes in with 5 positions, two of which were just added in the past two years and one that was created within the new fiscal year and has not yet been filled. The Budget & Performance department is currently working on the Performance Management Program where they collaborate with departments to identify measurable goals and objectives and then use corresponding data sources to publish internal and external dashboards. At the time of this writing Apex is in the middle of their 150th year as an incorporated Town and much of the 150th celebration events are being planned and communicated through our Communications Department. Since I work in the Communications department I’d be remiss if I didn’t take this time to plug our socials. Follow ‘Town of Apex’ on Facebook, Instagram, Nextdoor, or Threads if you’d like to keep up on the happenings in the Town!


2. Finance


It’s hard to envelop all our Finance Department does in a few sentences, but let’s give it a go. You might know our Finance Department as the lovely people that help you pay your utility bills and sign up to connect/disconnect your electricity and water. They also play a big role internally as well. Broken up into 3 divisions: purchasing, accounting, and customer service, Finance Director Antwon Morrison shared a bit of what each division does for the Town of Apex. In the Purchasing division there are 5 positions who help manage purchasing contracts and help keep tabs on warehouse inventory. In the Accounting division there are 6 positions who help manage the employee payrolls, utility account payments, and other finance needs such as employee benefits or reimbursements. In the Customer Service division there are 10 positions to help Residents with their utility questions and billing set-up. While our Finance Department has it’s public facing duties, you can tell that they do a lot internally as well!


3. Human Resources


Like I mentioned above, Apex is rapidly growing. The number of Town employee positions needs to grow to accommodate the population growth. Director of Human Resources Mary Beth Manville shares that we currently have 638 positions in the Apex Government. To help manage all of those positions our HR department currently has 12 people who work internally and externally from initial job postings, to on-boarding, to employee benefits that current employees receive and so on. Under the Human Resources Director there is a Safety & Risk Manager, an Assistant HR Director, HR Data & Systems Administrator, and Executive Assistant, Senior Training & Development Consultant, Comp & Benefits Manager, a Senior Talent Acquisition Consultant, Human Resources Technician, Talent Acquisition Consultant, and two Human Resources Consultants. Each of these 12 positions are committed to a unified 4 department goals: To develop a comprehensive strategy to keep the Town competitive in attracting and employing a highly qualified and diverse group of candidates, implement and maintain programs and policies that promote a healthy, safe and productive work environment, provide on-going learning and development opportunities to allow Apex employees to perform at a high level and fulfill their career aspirations, and continue to explore and implement ways to effectively and efficiently run departmental operations.


4.IT


Last, but certainly not least, we heard from Information Technology Director Erika Sacco about everything IT does for the Town. Following the motto ‘We DIG IT!’ We Deliver Innovative Government through Information Technology, Erika leads a department of 18 positions. Through these positions our IT department delivers three different goals: to maintain and improve service level agreements, make sure that data is accessible and secure, and create change with positive and effective results through innovative projects. Our Apex IT Department was recently the first local government to complete their accreditation for the GMIS (Government Management Information Sciences) International and they continue to score a commendable status each term. In addition to working on their current projects like security hardware upgrades and security, risk and wireless assessments the IT Department also volunteers to assist other NC Government entities by assisting with remediation when the other entity is in need.


Peak Academy Session #11-

Transportation & Infrastructure / Economic Development


1. Growing infrastructure for a growing community


Our Transportation & Infrastructure Development department is a new department that arose to fulfill a need in a growing community. Broken up into 5 divisions; Development Services, Roadway Design, Traffic Services, Infrastructure Inspections, and Real Estate, this department oversees the engineering plan review of private development, manages the design of Town transportation projects, oversees the Vision Zero programs, provides inspections and construction oversight for new public infrastructure, and much more. While the Traffic Services & Roadway Design division does work on small roadway projects, it’s important to note that majority of roadways in Apex fall under NCDOT domain, which includes maintenance and traffic signal timing.


2. A future full of Zeros


In this Peak Academy session, we learned about Project Vision Zero, which is being over seen by our Transportation and Infrastructure Development department. In August of 2022, Apex Town Council adopted the Vision Zero Action Plan which is a comprehensive and holistic approach to achieving the goal of zero fatalities on Apex roadways by 2035. The Town is using a ‘Five E Approach’ to eliminate fatalities and serious injuries on our streets through Engineering, Education, Encouragement, Enforcement, and Evaluation. While this project is being led by our Transportation and Infrastructure Development department, there are many other town departments involved in educating the public, enforcing road way rules, and engineering safer roadways and sidewalks. If you’d like to take a deeper dive in the Project Vision Zero, including the history of the project and the progress it’s already made, click here.


3. Developing our economy and so much more


Our Economic Development Department may be considered small with only 4 employees, but they are mighty. In this Peak Academy Session, we heard from Joanna Helms, Director of Economic Development and she shared with us the process of creating an enticing Town for future developers and entrepreneurs. Other than great resources, such as being a Public Power municipality, the Town also needs to provide space for companies to not only build but also to be able to expand in future years. A great example of this was the business that we toured during this session, Enviroflight. Enviroflight is a world leader in the development of high quality, sustainable insect-based ingredients for animals and plants in a socially responsible way. Enviroflight knew that they wanted to be near the Research Triangle, but also needed space to grow. Apex was able to offer them the acreage not only to build their initial 40,000 square foot research and development facility, but also enough acreage to be able to expand as the company grows. Our Economic Development department spear headed the efforts to show Enviroflight that Apex was going to be the right fit for their company and successfully brought new jobs and economic growth to our ever-growing Town.


Peak Academy Session #12-

Public Works


1. First things first


Whether you know a lot or just a little about Public Works departments, most think of trash and recycling as the main thing Public Works employees handle. In this Peak Academy session, we heard from Director John Mullis about how his team services 23,231 yard waste accounts and 23,568 recycling accounts. While our Public Works field employees don’t handle picking-up the trash, our Public Works Support Specialists do handle the contract with our local trash company, GFL, including any service requests that are needed. In 2022, our Public Works collected 5,120 tons of yard waste and 4,818 tons of recycling. Just to clarify the magnitude of how much yard waste and recycling our Public Works collects, 1 ton = 2,000 pounds! Something that is unique to Apex is that we collect recycling every week. A lot of towns and cities collect every other week, but our Public Works team just goes above and beyond for our residents.


2. What you might not know


A few divisions of our Public Works department that might not be as well known to the public are our Fleet, Street Operations, and Facilities & Grounds Maintenance divisions. Our Fleet division takes care of 377 vehicles and 254 pieces of equipment that the Town owns. Through four mechanics our Fleet division was able to take care 2,274 work orders just last year alone. Our Street Operations division takes care of creating, repairing, and installing street signs within Apex as well as patching up small holes within the streets and damaged curb ramps. The Street Operations division works closely with several other departments, such as Water Resources, since they will patch up the street or sidewalk that may have been damaged in the process of repairing underground pipes. Our Facilities & Grounds Maintenance division takes care of 28 Town owned facilities which includes maintenance of Town owned electric vehicle chargers and solar panels that are on 10 of the 28 Town facilities.


3. Maintenance and Responses


‘Maintenance’ really is the word of the day when it comes to Public Works. On top of the maintenance mentioned previously, our Public Works department also maintains our stormwater pipes, our contracted services such as janitorial work and ground maintenance, the equipment our field workers use in inclement weather events (such as snow storms), and trip hazard mitigation, like when the concrete of a sidewalk has shifted and becomes a tripping hazard. They are also part of the Town’s storm response plan. When a large weather event happens our Public Works employees will go out and clear trees and debris from our roadways as well as salt the roads and snow plow when needed. Our Public Works team truly does it all!