Pulled up to a stoplight and saw a white Tesla with TMSA branding on the sides. What does a charter school need a Tesla for?

I was in the room Monday night (Oct 13). Here’s what I watched happen.

Council approved a five year Axon contract 4 to 1: DroneSense software for the drones APD already flies, bundled with an interview room camera system. Shane Reese was the only no.

Back in August, residents actioned and Sue pulled this same contract off the consent agenda and asked to see the drone use policy before any vote. The police chief told the N&O the program runs under a “robust policy.” The N&O asked for a copy and never got one.

Two months later the contract came back from committee. The policy did not.

On Monday, Mayor Pro Tem Mahaffey asked again whether the policy exists and is public. The town attorney said “some are public, some are not.” They voted anyway. Nothing was produced.

And here’s the thing about “we have a robust policy”: to this day they have never produced it. Not to residents who asked in August, not to the N&O when it requested a copy, not to the council member who asked from the dais Monday night. A policy nobody can read is not a policy. You can’t be held to rules that don’t exist in public.

Even if it’s real, an internal use policy only governs what APD does with the data. It says nothing about who else can get to it. That’s not hypothetical with this vendor stack: Flock’s national network has already been accessed by federal agencies, and Axon’s platform is built to pool drone video, plate hits, and other feeds together. “Trust us, we have rules” doesn’t address the part that actually matters, which is where the data goes and who can query it. Nobody answered that Monday either.

What I noticed sitting there:

• The term got longer, not shorter. In August it ran to June 2030. Axon sent a new quote the day of the meeting, five years from Nov 1, so now it runs into late 2031. Nobody blinked at the extra 18 months.
• The interview room recording system is fine and nobody opposed it. NC law requires recording certain interrogations. It was priced separately (about $74k) from the drone software (about $43k). They could have approved the half nobody objected to and held the drone software until the policy was public. They bundled it instead.
• Ed Gray did most of the talking, and most of it was aimed at arguments nobody made. Nobody said the drones peer into windows. Nobody said drones have no legitimate use. Nobody opposed recording interrogations. He kept knocking those down anyway and calling the real concern, no published policy, “panic, paranoia, and unnecessary stress.”
• The urgency was never shown. Gray said we were about to hit a “critical gap” if it didn’t pass that night. Nobody named a date. Nobody said what would go dark if the vote waited for the policy. I listened for it. It never came.

One claim I’d flag: Gray said residents could “look at a database to figure out whether or not that’s an APD drone.” DroneSense is internal pilot and fleet software, live streaming, flight logging, evidence storage. I can’t find a resident facing lookup anywhere in its product materials. The cities that actually offer public drone lookups built those separately and announced them. If it’s in the Apex contract, the town can point to the line.

And the Flock plate reader question is still open. The Public Safety Committee made no recommendation. It comes back December 3. The Flock contract ends January 31.

Two dates if you want to show up:

• Ed Gray’s town hall, Thursday Oct 22, 5:00 PM, Apex Town Hall third floor, 73 Hunter Street. He says he hasn’t made up his mind on Flock and wants dialogue. Go specific: ask him to publish the drone policy before Dec 3 and show where the public drone lookup actually is.
• Public Safety Committee, Dec 3 at 3:00 PM, where Flock comes back.

Full writeup with the meeting video and vote breakdown: https://deflockapex.org/council-2026-10-13

I was there for the whole thing, so I’ll be around in the comments.

Apex board appointments now run on a calendar. On Oct. 13, Council adopted the "shot clock": the Mayor's recommendation is due 30 days before a term ends, or within 30 days of a vacancy. The code now says plainly that Council is not bound by it, as there was some previous disagreement about the plain meaning of the word "recommendation". If none arrives in time, or Council doesn't appoint that person, Council can appoint another qualified applicant. It applies to all six boards with resident members.

As I said at the hearing, this is about reliability: seats come up, they're due, we vote, and we move on. Council votes on one ballot for all open seats, listing every Council nominee plus the Mayor's recommendation, if there is one. Minutes later, signed ballots filled all four open seats on the agenda, for arts, transportation, parks and the Planning Board.

More seats come up in December. If you'd like to serve, apply at apexnc.org/177.

Meeting video: Town of Apex.

Made it over to the No Kings: Vote Early rally at Beaver Creek Commons this morning 🇺🇸. Rain didn't stop a great crowd from lining the sidewalks with a simple message: make your plan to vote early.

With early voting open now through October 31 — and same-day registration available — there's no reason to wait. Standing up for democracy and freedom means showing up, and Apex showed up today. 🗳️

My family and I love the Tour of Frights, but even with the Google Maps links that the town provides, it's always difficult to plan out routes.

This year, I built a webpage (with help from Claude) to create custom Maps routes from the houses on the tour.

This is mainly a tool for me, but just in case someone else might find it useful, I've put it up on GitHub.

Hi there! I'm based in Apex, NC, and I'm excited to announce that I'll be offering an SAT Math Bootcamp on November 7th and November 8th. This would be a great fit if your child is a junior and is planning to take the SAT December 5th, or any other date in the spring. There will be 4 sessions(virtual through Zoom), 2 hours each, once a week with a maximum of 5 students. The focus will be on the 4 domains - Algebra, Advanced Math, Geometry & Trigonometry, and Problem Solving & Data Analysis, and how to leverage time-saving strategies and Desmos to get to the correct answer faster.

 If interested, please fill out this group form below and indicate which date you would be interested in starting.

 https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdAE1vNK2DHHhpv-6DK8NrT57Ii_pNgULpKB-07CFofvjkrHw/viewform?usp=header

I reported this story about April Buchanan, who closed The Perky Lady in downtown Apex even though she says the business was profitable.

What interested me most was the connection between three seemingly unrelated careers — policing, bra fitting and now counseling — and why she decided it was time to leave a business she had spent nearly a decade building.

Read the story for free: https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/counties/wake-county/article317594991.html?giftCode=82d665766f83eff5699e42710b3390d0811132a5558fa6562e15990512c45688

Special occasion today and planning to take out family for dinner. Please suggest good restaurants in the Apex/Cary/Morrisville area with good ambience and service. Open to all cuisines. Thanks !

Last night's Apex Town Council meeting, in brief 🏛️

🚰 Big Branch 2 Pump Station: Council unanimously awarded a $17.5M construction contract (down $1.1M from the low bid after value engineering). It's a regional sewer solution for the 3,700-acre Big Branch basin, it retires three aging pump stations, and it helps us meet our Cape Fear interbasin transfer obligations. Construction is expected to start in February and finish in summer 2028.

⏱️ Advisory board "shot clock": Council adopted the UDO and Town Code amendments that put a calendar on board appointments. Mayoral recommendations are now due 30 days before a term expires, and Council can fill a seat if a recommendation doesn't come. State law (G.S. 160D-310) has always put appointments with Council; this just adds a due date. Then we filled all four open seats that same night by ballot, including Tianduo Zhang to the Planning Board. Eight Environmental Advisory Board terms come up in December.

🏘️ North Salem Street rezoning (25CZ24): continued to Nov. 10 at the applicant's request. Haddon Hall residents still came to speak about stormwater, and I'm listening.

🌅 Parks will open at 5:30 a.m. (designated parks), making the pilot permanent.

🛝 Apex Community Park: Council committed matching funds so we can pursue up to $750K in federal LWCF grant money for the playground and ADA upgrades.

🚁 Axon amendment (4-1): drone flight-logging software and interview-room recording, $112.8K over five years. This is audit-log and transparency software for the drone program APD already runs, not a new surveillance program. The bigger ALPR conversation continues in the Public Safety Committee.

✅ Also: Ivy Glen annexation (22 acres on Camp Branch Lane), a right-of-way cleanup on Chapel Ridge Road, the Project Buffer incentive hearing moved to Dec. 17, and proclamations for Breast Cancer, Domestic Violence and Down Syndrome Awareness months.

📊 Utility billing update: 1,050 payment plans are in place, and only about 30 of the 329 accounts disconnected last month remain off.

📅 Mark your calendar: • Early voting starts Thursday, Oct. 15 and runs through Oct. 31 • Fall Harvest Night downtown, Fri. Oct. 16, 5 to 8 p.m. • ALPR town hall with Councilmember Gray, Thu. Oct. 22, 5 p.m., Town Hall 3rd floor • Budget priorities survey open through Dec. 1

Full agenda and video: apexnc.org/838/Agendas-Minutes

I’ve seen it in s*ithole countries - roadway-affecting construction takes place outside of regular business hours, to avoid disrupting traffic conditions.
Not here, at the Peak of Good Living. We like our roads jammed, we love burning expensive fuels and wasting hours in gridlock, all for the good of the Economy and the Greatness of the Nation, of course.
Else, we risk being labeled a “dirty commie” and taken off social security “benefits”.

Hi all,

It finally happened to me. Blue Cross Blue Shield is going to be out of network with Cary OBGYN (and other offices affiliated with UWH of the Carolinas) in January.

This timing especially sucks as I am just starting to plan and prepare for my first kid. I need some recommendations for an OBGYN in Apex, Cary, Raleigh, etc. that is compassionate, has excellent attention to detail, and treats anxiety seriously.

Providers/practices to avoid would be helpful as well. Thank you for all of your help. It is really hard choosing a new provider after having one I loved for so long...

Just a quick FYI for any Gfiber customers in the Pearson Farms area. ITS is doing work at the corner of Pearson Farms Dr and Olive Chapel and has cut a cable, which apparently belongs to GFiber since my service is down. I talked to the ITS crew and they said the line marking service hadn't marked the cable. I've reported this to GFiber and they have a ticket assigned to a local crew to repair the cable.

We had an unofficial estimate from u/terrymah back in May-ish of a possible opening the end of the year.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Apex_NC/comments/1tf5f8y/comment/om7frxq/

Is this still tracking for the end of the year, or should expectations be modest and wait for after the new year? Thanks!

Recently moved to Apex and interested in attending some Halloween events in the area. Has anyone gone to witches night out? Is it any fun? Do people actually dress up? Or anyone have good recommendations on Halloween events?

Anyone have any idea what was in this guy this morning around 6:40 AM?

I will be there tomorrow and plan to dig in heavily on the dud of a Public Safety Committee outcome + lean in on the fact that they are 100% one-sided (towards APD).

Gloves off and calling people out.

I'm a high school student, and I built PathWalk (pathwalk.app), a free web app that finds the safest walking or wheelchair route rather than the fastest. It's for people with mobility issues, primarily those who use wheelchairs, walkers, or canes in Wake County, NC.

What it does

• Routes around missing sidewalks, risky crossings, steep slopes, steps, missing curb ramps and pedestrian crash hotspots
• Builds routes for a mobility profile (manual or power wheelchair, walker, or custom limits) and gives each route a safety score
• Turn-by-turn voice navigation, rest stops along the route, and crowdsourced hazard reports
• You can even simulate a walk to preview a route

PathWalk currently only covers Wake County, but anyone can try it: enter a start and destination within Wake County (a few suggested places pop up when you tap the From or To box), then press "Simulate walk."

I want to expand PathWalk to other counties, then all of North Carolina, and even the whole country if possible, so please let me know what you think. Brutal honesty is welcome.

(sorry, theres no audio in the video...)

Quick demo of the website. Use on mobile for most access to features.

Big change to yard waste in Apex: starting Oct. 19, pickup moves to every other week, split into Zones A and B.

This short video shows the official Town zone map, the pile rules (out by 6 a.m. Monday during peak leaf season), the fee going to $10.88 a month, and why grass clippings are on hold.

The utility has been running in the red for a number of years and projected to get worse, with the fees (which had not changed since 2019) not covering the cost of the service. The Town Council had to make a number of tough choices to keep the program viable. Going forward, the fee will be set at what is needed to cover the cost of service. Simultaneously we are taking several cost cutting measures to keep the fees affordable (such as bi-weekly service), and we will continue to search for more efficiencies.

Details: apexnc.org/563

An update on the North Salem Street rezoning, case 25CZ24, the 32-acre proposal next to Haddon Hall.

The applicant has asked that the case be continued to the Town Council meeting on Tuesday, Nov. 10, so they can evaluate and respond to the feedback residents have sent over the past several weeks. Requests like this made before a hearing are routinely granted, and I expect this one will be.

What that means: although the item is still on tomorrow night's agenda, no public hearing will be held on Oct. 13. If you were planning to come to Town Hall to speak on it, please don't make the trip. The hearing will be Tuesday, Nov. 10, at 6 p.m. Everything already submitted in writing stays in the record, and written statements can still be delivered to the Town Clerk at least two business days before Council votes.

I have heard the feedback, and I am concerned about the stormwater impacts of this proposal on Haddon Hall, especially in light of what the Town's own 2025 stormwater study found about conditions in the neighborhood. I will be asking the applicant to address that directly in whatever they bring back, and I will post an update when their response is available.

Info current as of Oct. 12, 2026.

We used to make enough energy with our solar panels to cover all, or almost all our energy needs. We still technically do, but we are now paying hundreds for electricity since the town “upgraded” our meter.

Our Emporia vue app says we pulled roughly 1,400 kWh. MySolarEdge says we produced roughly 1,300 kWh. TOA bill says we pulled 1,700 kWh and is only crediting us for about 460 kWh. Is this a TOU thing? Why are we being charged for 1,300 kWh when we produced so much solar? Pics of bill and the apps below.

u/terrymah ? Is this a policy change from the 1:1 credits we used to get, or are they not tracking our solar correctly?

Reposting with redacted bill.