President Biden celebrates Friendsgiving service at Fort Bragg. 

https://www.cnn.com/2021/11/22/politics/biden-friendsgiving-fort-bragg/index.html

Rittenhouse Acquitted.  

 

Steverao app can be downloaded at Apple App store by searching for "Steverao" app in Apple store and Google Play store.

Other Way to download the app is by below scan for Apple store scan code and Google Play store link.

Below are two links to download app from Apple App store and Google Playstore.

The Town of Morrisville administrative offices will be closed on Thursday, Nov. 25, and Friday, Nov. 26, in observance of the Thanksgiving holiday. Police, fire, and rescue services will remain available. For life-threatening or in-progress emergencies, call 911. 

Trash and recycling pickup service for residents on Thursday, Nov. 25, will be moved to Friday, Nov. 26, and Friday service will be moved to Saturday, Nov. 27.

We hope you and your family have a safe and happy holiday!

Starting Dec. 4, the WWFM is shifting to winter market hours, 9:30 a.m. to noon. Visit http://wwfm.ag/ to see a complete list of local vendors and shop local!

For Morrisville Carpenter Road Project updates Visit https://bit.ly/mcrcp1

The Town of Morrisville cordially invites the community to attend the Morrisville Police Department Promotional and Swearing-In Ceremony on Tuesday, November 30, from 5:30-6 p.m. in the Town Hall Council Chambers. The ceremony will recognize the promotion of Sergeant Brad Manville and the swearing-in of newly hired Lieutenant Keith Kirkman.  

Save the date and join us as we kick off the holiday season with our Town of Morrisville Tree Lighting event at 6 p.m. on Friday, December 3, at Indian Creek Trailhead, 101 Town Hall Drive! Santa Claus and the Town Council will be counting down the lighting of the tree after some fun and entertainment.  

Morrisville's next White Goods Collection is Thursday, Dec. 9, 2021. Registration is required for White Goods collection. Complete the form linked here or call (919) 463-7070 to confirm your collection. Requests must be received by Monday, Dec. 6.

White Goods items include washing machines, dryers, freezers, refrigerators, dishwashers, water heaters, stoves and ovens, and dehumidifiers. Note that Microwaves are not included in this group. Microwaves should be dropped off at the South Wake Landfill (6130 Old Smithfield Rd in Apex). For details, visit the Public Works page by clicking here.

Morrisville’s winter 2021 disc golf course will be located at Cedar Fork District Park, 228 Aviation Parkway, from December 3, 2021 to January 18, 2022. Residents and area park users can practice throwing discs for their mid-range game. The course is designed for all levels of play. For details, including hours, a course map, and rules, click here.

The Morrisville Smart Shuttle, the Town’s newest public transit service, allows riders to request a pick-up or drop-off from one of 15 nodes, or stops, located around the Town using the Smart Shuttle application on their smartphone.

Watch this short video on how to use the Morrisville Smart Shuttle App by clicking here!

The service runs seven days a week, from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Friday, from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Saturday, and from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Sunday. Additional details on the Morrisville Smart Shuttle visit TownofMorrisville.org/SmartShuttle

Starting Dec. 4, the WWFM is shifting to winter market hours, 9:30 a.m. to noon. Visit http://wwfm.ag/ to see a complete list of local vendors and shop local!

President Joe Biden signed a $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill into law last Monday, finalizing a key part of his economic agenda.

It will deliver $550 billion of new federal investments in America's infrastructure over five years, touching everything from bridges and roads to the nation's broadband, water and energy systems.

The legislation would directly add roughly $350 billion to the deficit, when taking into account $90 billion of spending in new contract authority and no tax increases would be involved to fund the deal. 

Deliver clean water to all American families and eliminate the nation’s lead service lines. Currently, up to 10 million American households and 400,000 schools and child care centers lack safe drinking water. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal will invest $55 billion to expand access to clean drinking water for households, businesses, schools, and child care centers all across the country. From rural towns to struggling cities, the legislation will invest in water infrastructure and eliminate lead service pipes, including in Tribal Nations and disadvantaged communities that need it most.

Ensure every American has access to reliable high-speed internet. Broadband internet is necessary for Americans to do their jobs, to participate equally in school learning, health care, and to stay connected. Yet, by one definition, more than 30 million Americans live in areas where there is no broadband infrastructure that provides minimally acceptable speeds – a particular problem in rural communities throughout the country. And, according to the latest OECD data, among 35 countries studied, the United States has the second highest broadband costs. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal will deliver $65 billion to help ensure that every American has access to reliable high-speed internet through a historic investment in broadband infrastructure deployment. The legislation will also help lower prices for internet service and help close the digital divide, so that more Americans can afford internet access.

Repair and rebuild our roads and bridges with a focus on climate change mitigation, resilience, equity, and safety for all users. In the United States, 1 in 5 miles of highways and major roads, and 45,000 bridges, are in poor condition. The legislation will reauthorize surface transportation programs for five years and invest $110 billion in additional funding to repair our roads and bridges and support major, transformational projects. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal makes the single largest investment in repairing and reconstructing our nation’s bridges since the construction of the interstate highway system. It will rebuild the most economically significant bridges in the country as well as thousands of smaller bridges. The legislation also includes the first ever Safe Streets and Roads for All program to support projects to reduce traffic fatalities, which claimed more than 20,000 lives in the first half of 2021.

Improve transportation options for millions of Americans and reduce greenhouse emissions through the largest investment in public transit in U.S. history. America’s public transit infrastructure is inadequate – with a multibillion-dollar repair backlog, representing more than 24,000 buses, 5,000 rail cars, 200 stations, and thousands of miles of track, signals, and power systems in need of replacement. Communities of color are twice as likely to take public transportation and many of these communities lack sufficient public transit options. The transportation sector in the United States is now the largest single source of greenhouse gas emissions. The legislation includes $39 billion of new investment to modernize transit, in addition to continuing the existing transit programs for five years as part of surface transportation reauthorization. In total, the new investments and reauthorization in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal provide $89.9 billion in guaranteed funding for public transit over the next five years — the largest Federal investment in public transit in history. The legislation will expand public transit options across every state in the country, replace thousands of deficient transit vehicles, including buses, with clean, zero emission vehicles, and improve accessibility for the elderly and people with disabilities.

Upgrade our nation’s airports and ports to strengthen our supply chains and prevent disruptions that have caused inflation. This will improve U.S. competitiveness, create more and better jobs at these hubs, and reduce emissions. Decades of neglect and underinvestment in our infrastructure have left the links in our goods movement supply chains struggling to keep up with our strong economic recovery from the pandemic. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal will make the fundamental changes that are long overdue for our nation’s ports and airports so this will not happen again. The United States built modern aviation, but our airports lag far behind our competitors. According to some rankings, no U.S. airports rank in the top 25 of airports worldwide. Our ports and waterways need repair and reimagination too. The legislation invests $17 billion in port infrastructure and waterways and $25 billion in airports to address repair and maintenance backlogs, reduce congestion and emissions near ports and airports, and drive electrification and other low-carbon technologies. Modern, resilient, and sustainable port, airport, and freight infrastructure will strengthen our supply chains and support U.S. competitiveness by removing bottlenecks and expediting commerce and reduce the environmental impact on neighboring communities.

Make the largest investment in passenger rail since the creation of Amtrak. U.S. passenger rail lags behind the rest of the world in reliability, speed, and coverage. China already has 22,000 miles of high-speed rail, and is planning to double that by 2035. The legislation positions rail to play a central role in our transportation and economic future, investing $66 billion in additional rail funding to eliminate the Amtrak maintenance backlog, modernize the Northeast Corridor, and bring world-class rail service to areas outside the northeast and mid-Atlantic. This is the largest investment in passenger rail since Amtrak’s creation, 50 years ago and will create safe, efficient, and climate-friendly alternatives for moving people and freight.

Build a national network of electric vehicle (EV) chargers. U.S. market share of plug-in EV sales is only one-third the size of the Chinese EV market. That needs to change. The legislation will invest $7.5 billion to build out a national network of EV chargers in the United States. This is a critical step in the President’s strategy to fight the climate crisis and it will create good U.S. manufacturing jobs. The legislation will provide funding for deployment of EV chargers along highway corridors to facilitate long-distance travel and within communities to provide convenient charging where people live, work, and shop. This investment will support the President’s goal of building a nationwide network of 500,000 EV chargers to accelerate the adoption of EVs, reduce emissions, improve air quality, and create good-paying jobs across the country.

Upgrade our power infrastructure to deliver clean, reliable energy across the country and deploy cutting-edge energy technology to achieve a zero-emissions future. According to the Department of Energy, power outages cost the U.S. economy up to $70 billion annually. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal’s more than $65 billion investment includes the largest investment in clean energy transmission and grid in American history. It will upgrade our power infrastructure, by building thousands of miles of new, resilient transmission lines to facilitate the expansion of renewables and clean energy, while lowering costs. And it will fund new programs to support the development, demonstration, and deployment of cutting-edge clean energy technologies to accelerate our transition to a zero-emission economy. 

Make our infrastructure resilient against the impacts of climate change, cyber-attacks, and extreme weather events. Millions of Americans feel the effects of climate change each year when their roads wash out, power goes down, or schools get flooded. Last year alone, the United States faced 22 extreme weather and climate-related disaster events with losses exceeding $1 billion each – a cumulative price tag of nearly $100 billion. People of color are more likely to live in areas most vulnerable to flooding and other climate change-related weather events. The legislation makes our communities safer and our infrastructure more resilient to the impacts of climate change and cyber-attacks, with an investment of over $50 billion to protect against droughts, heat, floods and wildfires, in addition to a major investment in weatherization. The legislation is the largest investment in the resilience of physical and natural systems in American history.

Deliver the largest investment in tackling legacy pollution in American history by cleaning up Superfund and brownfield sites, reclaiming abandoned mines, and capping orphaned oil and gas wells. In thousands of rural and urban communities around the country, hundreds of thousands of former industrial and energy sites are now idle – sources of blight and pollution. Proximity to a Superfund site can lead to elevated levels of lead in children’s blood. The bill will invest $21 billion clean up Superfund and brownfield sites, reclaim abandoned mine land and cap orphaned oil and gas wells. These projects will remediate environmental harms, address the legacy pollution that harms the public health of communities, create good-paying union jobs, and advance long overdue environmental justice This investment will benefit communities of color as, it has been found that 26% of Black Americans and 29% of Hispanic Americans live within 3 miles of a Superfund site, a higher percentage than for Americans overall.

Gov. Roy Cooper on Thursday, Nov. 18, signed the $25.9 billion budget plan into law. It’s the first budget from the General Assembly that Cooper has signed since taking office in 2017.

Both chambers passed the budget by veto-proof majorities. The House voted for final passage 104-10 Thursday, with all Republicans and 40 Democrats, including House minority leader Rep. Robert T. Reives, D-Chatham, voting in favor.

The 2021-22 budget plan, released Monday, Nov. 15, represents a 4.3% increase over the previous plan with $25.9 billion slated to be spent. The fiscal 2022-23 portion of the biennial plan is $27 billion, and the state’s rainy-day fund grows to $4.25 billion by the end of the biennium.

Among the highlights are tax cuts, including lowering the personal income tax rate from 5.25% to 3.99% over six years and phasing out the corporate income tax beginning in 2025 and ending in 2031. Tax cuts were one of the priorities for Republican leadership over the past decade and a point of contention for Democrats.

The budget contains an increased standard deduction that increases the number of people in the state’s lowest tax bracket for those who make $25,500 or less. An increase in the child tax deduction to $500 per child was also included.

Military pensions are also exempted from state income tax in the budget. North Carolina has the fifth largest military population of any state, with eight major installations that provide $66 billion in impact to the state economy annually.

Medicaid expansion, something that Cooper and Democrats wanted, wasn’t included, but the budget does extend postpartum benefits and increases funding for home and community-based service enhancements.

In an effort to soothe some of the Medicaid expansion concerns, Cooper has cited for previous budget vetoes, a Joint Legislative Study Committee on Access to Healthcare will be created. It will be directed to study and report a bill to the General Assembly in the 2022 Session on Healthcare Access and Medicaid Expansion.

The budget also funds an average 6.7% raise for teachers over the biennium, while state workers should see a 5% raise. Bonuses for teachers range from $1,000 to $2,850, plus a $1,000 bonus for all state employees.

Another important item in health care includes the addition of 1,000 Innovations Waiver slots to serve the intellectually and developmentally disabled. More than 15,000 families qualify for the program, but many wait years for help. The additional slots have been in previous budgets vetoed by Cooper.

Broadband: $1 billion in new federal funding to the state’s broadband expansion initiatives.  

$5.9 billion in state funding over the biennium in the State Capital and Infrastructure Fund, providing funds to build, repair, and renovate state, university, and other capital assets, 

$878 million in capital projects for state agencies.

Revisions to the governor’s emergency authority would go into effect after Jan. 1, 2023. This was part of the original Senate budget bill from this past spring and is a direct response to Cooper’s emergency declarations over the past 20 months due to the pandemic. Those orders included restricting people’s movements, limiting gatherings, shutting down businesses and schools, and setting curfews. 

The revision would require such orders to get approval from the Council of State after a set period. The Council of State is a group of 10 statewide elected officers, including the lieutenant governor. 

Last week, our department appeared before the Commission for CFAI as the final step in our 2021 accreditation effort. The result was that we were awarded accredited agency status for a third time. This was a huge effort with a successful conclusion.

 

We would like to acknowledge those who assisted in writing our Self-Assessment Manual, Briggs, L. Scott, Oswald, Hoffman, Salter, Chorney, Alexander, Cates, Dooley, Dodson, Lozinsky, and myself, then Bill Granger gets an assist with technical editing. Next, accreditation requires a massive amount of data analysis and this would not be at all possible without Captain Hoffman and his ability to perform this analysis and we appreciate his dedication to the department. 

Thanks to Chief Criddle and Chief Lozinsky for coordinating this accreditation effort. It is a huge task to quarterback the efforts of so many toward a common goal. I personally appreciate the tremendous responsibility he graciously took on for our collective benefit and just how well it turned out.

Last Saturday, I attended the Music Festival at Box Yard RTP.  It gave me ideas on how we have the opportunity to create a similar vibrant, thriving, and engaging environment in our Town Center.  Kudos to Scott Levitan and his team for making this happen.  Stay tuned!

Mayor Cawley and I were honored to attend the Volunteer Food Drive last Friday, hosted by Sewa Diwali.  We thank the volunteers, many of the high school children, and youth who organized this Food Drive.  

Santa visited us at the Park West Winter Wonderland last weekend and thanks to 101.5 FM for being there for most of the weekend!  Happy Holidays!

Register at: https://business.morrisvillechamber.org/events/details/state-of-morrisville-december-2021-2396

Join us for a dynamic discussion of the current state of affairs for Morrisville at our State of Morrisville Event on December 7;
including an update from Town Manager and other Town staff members.

Topics to be discussed include:

After the conclusion of the event, we invite you to join us for light hors d'oeuvres and beer and wine at our Holiday Reception in the grand ballroom.

Dec 8th Clean Tech Innovation Awards.   

4pm to 7pm.  Market Hall, Raleigh   

https://researchtrianglecleantechnc.memberzone.com/eventregistration/register/191.   

The Connected Park Initiative (CFDP Smart City Project) has been nominated for a 2021 Cleantech Innovation Award – the Cleantech Impact: Local Government Award (press release below). Winners will be announced at the event mentioned on the top of the press release. Governor Cooper will be honored as the Cleantech Champion and is scheduled to speak at the event.

Dec. 10th Connected Communities Conference! 

Dec 11th Deck the Hall Live Fire Safety Demonstration.   11:45 am to 1 pm.  

The event is the highlight of the Morrisville Fire/Rescue Department’s 2021 holiday safety campaign, “12 Days of Fire Safety,” and will also be live streamed on the Town of Morrisville’s Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/TownOfMorrisville/.  

For more information, please contact Assistant Fire Marshal Justin McLaurin at jmclaurin@townofmorrisville.org , or call (919) 463-6219.

Join us at Fire Station 1 at 5:30 pm for a Reception before the Swearing In Ceremonies of Mayor Cawley, Council Member Scroggins Johnson, Council Member Fender and myself.  (Please email me at sr@steverao.com if you plan on attending) Stay tuned for information on the Swearing In Ceremony at Town Hall. Face Coverings and Social Distancing Required. 

We are hosting a Dec 16th Reception for Wiley Nickel for Congress at Blue Fox (2235 Gathering Place Drive, Morrisville, NC 27560)  6 pm.  

RSVP to Alicia Speedy at (252) 481-7222 or email to alicia@wileynickelforcongress.com or sr@steverao.com. 

Join us every Friday on World Edition at 10 am for the Great America Project Panel where we discuss how we rebuild Americas' image with leaders from around the country and world.

Public Open Dialogue TV is a worldwide multilingual, multi-demographic network focused on inspiring, educating and entertaining the global community. We provide unique programming in areas not covered by traditional media, and provide a platform for the audience to engage with those shows. Formerly IBMTV.