Town of Apex pondering the future of its downtown fire station

It isn't often I have opportunities to create a post in response to contemporary news, but that's exactly what this post is about. 

In today's editions of the Raleigh News & Observer, there was a story about how the town of Apex, a southwest Raleigh suburb, is planning to move its crews and fire engine out of the longtime downtown Fire Station 1 to Fire Station 3, about 3 miles to the west and slightly north. But it hasn't said what will become of the Station 1 building (see photos in this post, all of which I made in either 2018 or 2019). 

Interestingly, the majority of the news story was devoted to concerns about the building's future. The original three-bay section was built in 1954 and has been expanded thereafter to accommodate the town's growing population. 

Station 1 is on Salem Street in the heart of the town's downtown commercial district. People attending a recent Town Council meeting said they enjoyed seeing the station in their downtown. 

There were suggestions that perhaps the building be converted to a museum, but some attending the meeting did not feel that was adequate for the structure. Others suggested renovating the building so it can remain an integral part of the downtown landscape, although the Town Council decided in 2019 not to remodel the structure.

The News & Observer quoted Fire Chief Tim Herman saying that he felt Stations 1 and 3 are the same station under two roofs, with the fire engine housed at Station 1 and technical response equipment at Station 3 at 736 Hunter St. Moving the engine to Station 3 would better spread the department's resources, he added. 

Herman, who noted he wants the department to maintain a downtown presence, also said an outside study presented to the Town Council in 2025 made moving the engine from 1 to 3 its first recommendation. 

The Council ended up voting unanimously to set aside $170,000 to have another study determine the best use of the Station 1 building. The study is expected to welcome public input.   

No action on Station 1 is expected until adaptations to Station 3 are made to accommodate the move. 

Photography travel blog launches

A short post to introduce the launch of a new travel photography blog by yours truly. It is called Travelin' Shutterbug (see photo above).  

I actually decided to try to launch this two years ago, but life got in the way. But it launched officially today with a post on Ormond Beach, Fla. The next post will look at the Ponce de Leon Inlet Lighthouse, just south of Daytona Beach (and, for that matter, Ormond Beach, too).

The plan then is to explore all the other places where I've visited and photographed in Florida, including St. Augustine, the Keys and the Orlando theme parks. After that, I'll move on to other states. I hope to activate a new post at the rate of about one every two or, at the most, three days.

The posts will be heavy on pictures, but also contain helpful information and links to post-appropriate websites. For example, to the extent possible, I'll be presenting places Lee Ann and I have dined or attractions we have visited, such as the Ponce de Leon Inlet Lighthouse that will be featured in the second post.

Whether or not you are a photography enthusiast, you should find some interesting things even if just to peruse the pictures. Maybe you've visited some or even a lot of these places. 

If you don't know how to bookmark the blog on whatever browser you use to access the Internet, the new blog's URL to type into your browser search window is pretty easy to remember: tshutterbug.blogspot.com

More mushrooms and geese at park, but lower water levels and falls stream

On most recent previous post about Yates Mill Pond Park, it was mushroom day. I'm calling today's post "geese day" at the park, although you'll find at the bottom there are yet more mushrooms. More about that later. 

In that previous post, I used a couple photos of a farm implement harvesting the annual crops in the field adjacent to the 2-mile Creekside Trail I use for my walks at the park. Apparently, the implements leave behind morsels of whatever crop (corn, soybeans, etc.) that they harvest. So scores of geese descended on the field two days ago when I was there for my walk, and spent the morning picking the fields clean. 

The photo leading off the post is a procession of geese on the farm field perimeter honking warnings that they had spotted me on the trail.

The photos above and below show small sections of the field (and geese) feasting on the leftovers. These photos have been cropped to bring the geese closer to you, the viewer. 

Above and below: These were among the few mushrooms left untouched on the Mill Pond Trail on Monday. I also was at Yates Mill Pond Park on Aug. 6 (last Thursday), and while I saw more destruction or disappearance of mushrooms, I also noticed new ones. The pictures below are about those.

 

All of which brings us back to geese. When I started my walk last Thursday, there were about two dozen or so geese on the pond itself, hanging out in a very shallow area that was only slightly covered by water (see photos below). 

This spot in the pond was just a small distance south of the main boardwalk bridge over the pond, which is how I was able to get a photo from a relatively close distance. Of course, the geese were honking their heads off as soon I stopped to take their pictures. 

The drought here hasn't totally disappeared, so given that we haven't had a good rain in a week now, water levels on bodies of water are receding. Yates Mill Pond is no exception. When I was there Wednesday, the waterfall stream had been reduced to two streams on opposite ends of the ledge. 

Pictures of Lillington, N.C., 7 years after the photo shoot (oops!)

Just yesterday, I came across one of the great mysteries of my time trying to chronicle photo shoots here at Photo Potpourri. 

In late August 2019, I drove to the Harnett County seat city of Lillington, N.C., to do one of my periodic community photo profiles. Harnett is the county immediately south of Wake County, where I live. 

After processing the images, I thought I did a post about that trip. The other day, while working on a photo-related project, I went to pull up that post that I thought I'd done hoping to find both images and information about the community that I needed. 

But I could not find any such post. So, folks ... here is a first for this blog — a post seven years after the shoot, a separation not meant to be intentional. 

The unfortunate thing about it is that I'm so far removed from that outing, that my memories of the community are not vivid today. Having a fresh memory of a shoot is one of the benefits of doing a post within a week after finishing the photo processing. 

I’ll sprinkle detail that I can remember in the appropriate places, but I’ll warn you now, there might not be much detail. The photo leading off the post shows what was the Lillington Chamber of Commerce building at 106 Front St. at the time I was there. It appears the chamber has since moved to smaller quarters on Harnett Street.

This surprised me; the Front street property and the adjacent Centennial Plaza (later named Senter Family Park) distinguished by the Senter Family Town Clock were one of the memorable attractive portions of the downtown that I can remember. I dropped an inquiry about the situation to the chamber several days ago, but did not receive a response.

One interesting geographic feature about Lillington is that one needs to travel north and cross the Cape Fear River then turn left onto W. Cornelius Harnett Boulevard to access all of the Harnett County government offices in a nicely landscaped complex. On the upside, all of these buildings appear to be pretty new and reflect similar -- but attractive -- architecture. You'll see these near the middle of the post below. 

Adjacent to the complex is an expansive Veterans Park that includes the Harnett County Veterans Memorial and Harnett County Law Enforcement Memorial. There are pictures of this below the county government office photos below.  

As always, to view a larger version of a photo, simply click on the photo, something that might prove beneficial for those of you accessing the blog on a mobile device. To view a full gallery of images from my shoot in Lillington, follow the link in this sentence. 

Above and first two photos below: The Beans and Cream, 810 S. Main St., a combination cafe and ice-cream shop. 

 

Above: A front shot of the former Chamber of Commerce building, which then was on Front Street. 

The town post office (above) and town hall (first five photos below). 

Above and below: The Harnett County Courthouse.