Columbian Beans & Festa Italiana

👋 Good Morning, Apex! Today is Thursday, September 17, 2026 and this is the 89th weekly issue of The Peak Weekly.

Guess what I did last week.

I roasted my own coffee beans 🫘

Okay I didn’t technically roast that bag of coffee beans all by myself. But, Mike and Shelly did let me push a lever. And if you think pushing that lever was easy?! Well it was but all the crazy stuff they were doing with the machines and the formulas… pretty cool.

When I wasn’t pushing the lever, I got to taste some coffee, learn all about how the roasting process works, see it in action and meet these awesome people who roast some of the best coffee right here in Apex.

In the short, but super interesting time that I spent with them, you could just see and hear and smell the love and passion that goes into every single roast. Mike was an IT guy who jumped ship from the corporate world not too long ago to sort of risk it all into something he loved : Beer Coffee. (You can love multiple things!)

From the sourcing to the crafting of the flavors to the roasting and the packaging and the customer service… everything I witnessed was an illustration of why we say “buy local”.

You can find their coffee at Lowe’s Foods, Southern Peak Brewery, Adventures in Bloom, Jean’s Neighborhood Market and more. Their coffee is also brewed at Fratelli’s, Rudy’s, and Popovers Cafe.

You can buy online too and have it delivered right to your front door.

This is why I started The Peak Weekly. I mean, sometimes I have to get into the weeds with some things I stumble upon behind the curtain - which is important too and I will keep doing that - but spending time here was a much needed reset. This type of stuff is why I love Apex. If YOU have something cool to share, let me know!

And then look for their beautiful packaging and visit their website to learn more!

Mike, Shelly (and Bill!) - Thank you guys for inviting me over. I was already buying your coffee beans before this but I’m going to buy them extra hard now 💪 

Miscellaneous Info:

🏒 Hurricanes Hockey Night
Stop by The Depot on September 18 from 5-8pm for street hockey, Canes inflatables and a special visit from Stormy.

🍂 New Yard Waste Schedule
Beginning October 19, Apex will transition to a biweekly yard waste collection for all residents. Residents will now be placed into two collection zones: Zone A and Zone B. Each is collected every other week. In regular season you get an assigned day; during peak leaf season you get an assigned week and pickup can land any day in it. A postcard and route map are coming soon to let you know. Grass clipping collection, pending final vote on Tuesday, will likely end January 1st.

🌊 Splashlantis
…remains closed.

🛝 Kelly Road Park Repairs
Playground repairs are underway at Kelly Road Park through tomorrow, September 18. During the repairs, the small playground (ages 2–5) is closed completely. The large playground remains open, but access will be modified due to work near the main entrance.

🖼️ Mural Feedback
CAAB needs your feedback on the designs as they work with professional muralists on a couple of upcoming designs. Saunders Street Retaining Wall Mural Design and the Nature Park Amphitheatre Mural Design.

🛣️ Street Resurfacing Project
The Town maintains more than 259 miles of streets, and based on a regular pavement condition survey, several neighborhoods are selected each year for pavement improvement projects. This work consists of extensive asphalt resurfacing in some areas, and with patching and microsurfacing in others.

Things to Do This Weekend in Apex:

Today, September 17

🌎️ Triangle Environmental Symposium
Gardening for the Planet Documentary Screening with Joanne Hershfield
6:30pm | The Halle

Friday, September 18

🏑 Hurricanes Hockey Night
5pm - 8pm | The Depot

Saturday, September 19

🧑‍🌾 Apex Farmers Market
8am - 12pm | The Depot

🏃‍♀️ Run Club Apex
Meet at 9am | Foxtail Coffee

🛍️ Sidewalk Sale
10am - 5pm | Downtown Apex

🎨 SuperFun Saturday
10:30am - 12:30pm | The Halle

🍁 Nook Vintage Fest
3pm - 7pm | The Vintage Nook

Get exclusive after-hours access to the shop inside plus access to vintage vendors set up outside bringing a highly curated variety to shop from!

- Vintage Men’s & Women’s Clothing
- Vintage Decor & Housewares
- Vintage Jewelry
- Custom Reworked Clothing & Accessories
- Vintage Coach Purses
- PLUS items from 30+ local artists inside The Studio

🇮🇹 Festa Italiana
11am - 7pm | Hunter Street & Town Hall Campus

Festa Italiana North Carolina celebrates Italian culture and heritage in the Triangle while providing financial support to local charities

- Italian Entertainment
- Cooking demonstrations
- Italian Food Vendors
- Italian Wines/Bellinis
- Beer Truck
- Canoli Eating Contest
- Italian Dancers
- Children’s Area

Local Business Updates

NeighborhoodBarre of Apex
Tomorrow, September 18th, the studio bringing low-impact, strength-focused workouts designed for every age and stage of life will be opening at 962 US HWY 64.

Bear Hands
Reopening their (new) doors on September 26th, Bear Hands is back and is making an entire magical weekend out of it. Details here.

Civic News:

🪑 Twelve Empty Resident Advisory Board Seats

Twelve seats on our resident advisory boards are empty right now. The Town Clerk printed a certified ballot for all twelve, dated August 25. It has never been used.

You're about to hear that this is the Mayor's fault. Before that happens, here's what the documents actually show.

How it's supposed to work:

Town Clerk advertises the vacancy → Residents apply → The Mayor makes a recommendation → Council votes yes or no

That's not my description. That's the process in the Town's own ordinances — six times over, four in the Town Code and twice in the UDO. Every one of them says members "shall be recommended by the mayor and appointed by the town council."

What's actually been happening

Dec 3, 2025 — A new Council is seated after the November election and adopts its Rules of Procedure.

Jan 13, 2026 — Six weeks later, Council takes up an amendment making the Mayor's committee appointment power "subject to confirmation by the Town Council," reducing him to a non-voting ex-officio member of Council committees, and barring him from chairing one. Gilbert pushed back, citing his professional background, and kept a chairmanship. He chairs Public Safety. Council would agree to him serving on one committee.

Apr 21, 2026 — Council directs staff toward ballot voting, which turns his recommendation from the motion on the floor into an annotation nobody counts. The Clerk's own scenario tables show it plainly: the Mayor's column sits behind a heavy divider bar, and his "yes" never enters the total.

Aug 25, 2026 — Ballot voting is adopted.

Sep 14, 2026 — A UDO amendment reaches the Planning Board that would let Council reject the Mayor's pick and install its own without ever going back to him.

Four moves in nine months. All in the same direction.

Let me be clear about what this is and isn't

This isn't about Jacques Gilbert. It isn't about any one councilmember. Gilbert won't be Mayor forever, and this Council won't sit forever either.

It's about a process — and specifically about the check built into it. Two offices, elected separately, who have to agree before a resident gets appointed. That's not a flaw in the design. That is the design. It forces a conversation. It means one person's preference isn't enough. It means disagreement has to get worked out in public instead of settled in advance.

Strip that out and you don't just change who wins this argument. You change what happens in every argument after it. Different mayor, different council, same missing check.

The time to notice that is while it's being written — not after.

And it isn't just me reading it this way. Jeff R., a private citizen with nothing at stake in these appointments, stood up at the Planning Board and said the amendment takes power away from the mayor's office "regardless of whether you like the current mayor hate the current mayor or the next mayor or four mayors from now." He supported putting the Mayor on a clock. He opposed the override.

But to be honest, the clock doesn't work as written

The amendment gives the Mayor 30 days before a term expires to make his recommendation.

The Town's own advisory board policy gives the Clerk until 30 days before that same date to hand him the applications.

Same day. He receives the candidates on the day his deadline runs out. And unless that date happens to fall on a Council meeting, there's no meeting at which he could act on it anyway. Council meets twice a month and recesses for the summer. A batch of these seats expired July 1.

Miss the deadline and the decision passes to Council. Council has no deadline. Reject his recommendation and Council picks instead. His inaction is punished. Theirs costs nothing.

Nobody has explained that. I'd like to hear someone try.

And notice who's deciding.

The Mayor's role in appointments exists because it's written into the ordinances. Council writes the ordinances. So Council is amending the rule that limits Council, and Council votes on whether to adopt it.

That’s like asking the fox to guard the henhouse.

It's like being told you can write the rules of the game, referee it, and decide when you've won. The Mayor's role in appointments is set by ordinance. Council writes the ordinances. So Council is amending the rule that constrains Council, and Council votes on whether to adopt it.

Write the rules, referee the game, and decide when you've won.

The Planning Board wasn't buying it either

Planning staff declined to make any recommendation at all, writing that the proposal "primarily addresses policy and administrative considerations rather than matters typically addressed through the planning process." A motion to approve it with the override provision struck failed for lack of a second. The board voted to postpone until October 12 — because nobody in the room could confirm the Mayor had ever been consulted.

That's the same standard Council itself used in April, when it sent the Environmental Advisory Board amendment back specifically for coordination with the affected board. Council extended that courtesy to the EAB. It skipped it for the Mayor.

The part you'll be told

The version coming from Council will be that the Mayor stalled and twelve seats are on him.

For the record, the mayor can't recommend on items that never reach an agenda. He's raised it with the Clerk's office repeatedly.

And there's support for that from an unlikely place. At Monday's work session, Councilmember Terri Mahaffey moved to make it standing policy that expired terms and vacancies appear on every agenda until they're acted on. Guess what - you don't need that motion if they've been appearing.

That’s the point. Blame the Mayor for not voting on something that you haven’t been putting on the agenda until now that it benefits your story.

Asked about the criticism that he's trying to control appointments, Gilbert said he asks councilmembers for their thoughts and recommendations before making his own, and always has. The Rules of Procedure describe that step: councilmembers may submit names, and their preferences are shared with the Mayor.

"People will come back and say that I'm trying to own all the power which is not the case," he said. "They always talk about following the rules. The UDO states the Mayor makes the recommendation."

Funny thing about this Council and the UDO. Ask Annie Scott how much they love it when it's pointed at a resident. But when it goes against them… they rewrite it and the vote to approve those rewrites by the Council goes to… the Council…

It did finally reach an agenda Monday — at a work session. Mayor Gilbert asked to move the recommendations and the vote to Tuesday's Council meeting, so the item would sit where residents could actually speak to it during public forum before any vote. Work sessions have no public comment. Regular meetings do.

So the one delay you can lay at the Mayor's feet is seven days, and the reason was to let the public into the room.

Why nothing has blown up

The boards have been meeting quorum. The ordinances count quorum as a majority of membership "excluding vacant seats," so empty chairs don't stop a board from doing business. That's a big part of why this has dragged on — nothing has broken loudly enough to force anyone's hand.

The cost is quieter. Fewer people doing the work. Members serving past terms they agreed to. Applicants who filled out a deliberately tougher application and have been waiting months on an answer.

And if you realllllly want to hear about fewer people doing the work, I got you. We’ll talk data center subcommittee next week.

Bottom line

There's already a process on the books that lets the Mayor and Council fill these seats together. It could be done Tuesday. Hell, it could have been done months ago.

Instead, Council is rewriting the UDO to hand itself the whole thing.

That’s a problem in any scenario.

Just know that before the Town posts its version.

⛪️ Above Ground Human Waste Septic System
Another thing to be aware of, on the heels of my recent report, What is Apex doing about Forever Chemicals, here’s a flyer that has recently popped up in the Friendship area:

This is referenced in the article as well, but the flyer gives a little bit more context into the above-ground spray septic system that Peak City Church is planning to build.

Let’s give credit where credit is due. Thank you, Shane Reese for voting against this while the rest of Council voted for it.

But let’s be fair on both sides. Shame on you for letting Terry Mahaffey lie, defame me, cause me harm, and put me in danger while staying silent to protect yourself.

Here’s the site plan illustration.

🎒 Wake County School Board Update
Lindsay Mahaffey of Apex was elected to the Wake County School board in 2016 and was reelected in November 2024. She resigned a few months after being reelected in August 2025 because “she said she was looking forward to spending more time with her family” according to WRAL.

Turns out, she actually resigned to be the campaign manager for Winn Decker, who is running for NC House District 37. She then used a good portion of the money donated to her for the re-election (which she quickly resigned from) and moved $2,000 to him on December 31, 2025; $4,039.63 on March 6, 2026 and another $1,000 on March 18.

These are all contributions seen on Decker’s campaign finance filings. You cannot find them on Lindsay Mahaffey’s filings because she failed to file her mid-year report 48 days ago to disclose it.

I emailed the county to see if it was just a website issue, but they confirmed, “Our office has not received a report covering any activity since the 2025 Year End Report at this time. The committee was notified that the 2026 Mid Year Semi-Annual report was due 7/31/2026 using the contact information on the most recent Statement of Organization.”

That’s crazy. I’m sure it’s a clerical error. The Mahaffeys are such honest people who only want the best for Apex… 🙄 

Upcoming Meetings:

Today, September 17
Environmental Advisory Board Meeting
6pm | Town Hall

Friday, September 18
Responsible Development Council Committee
8:30am - 10am | Town Hall

Monday, September 21
Culture and Arts Advisory Board
6pm | Town Hall

Tuesday, September 22
Town Council Meeting
6pm | Town Hall

A Look Ahead:

September 24
Emergency Preparedness 101 | Senior Center

September 24
Explore S’more | Apex Nature Park

September 24
Family Fire Safety Workshop | Apex Fire Station 3

September 26
10th Annual Day Behind (handle) Bars | Apex PD

September 26
Latino Arts Festival | Town Hall Campus

September 26
Fall in Stars Hallow (handmade market) | The Studio

September 26
Peaktoberfest | Southern Peak Brewery

October 2
Puzzlepalooza | Senior Center

October 2-4 and October 9-11
Fall Play: “Drinking Habits” | The Halle

October 3
Family Pumpkin Painting | The Halle

October 3
St. Paul’s Lobster Fest | St. Paul’s Episcopal Church

October 4
Love Local Showcase | Downtown Apex

October 6
Apex Night Out (featuring Touch-a-Truck) | Town Campus

October 10
Apex Oktoberfest | Town Campus

October 12
Indigenous People’s Day Ceremony | Apex Nature Park

October 16
Fall Harvest Night | The Depot Parking Lot

October 17
Arbor Day Celebration | Pleasant Park

In Case You Missed it:

🎨 Watercolor Artists of NC
The Halle Cultural Arts Center is featuring a collection of great watercolor pieces from different North Carolina artists through November 16.

🀄️ Mahjong Socials
Enjoy playing Mahjong? The Town is hosting a few upcoming Mahjong Mondays (Oct 5, Nov 9, Nov 23). Just $5. Register here.

🎬️ Drive-in Movie Night
Tickets for these drive-in movie nights usually go fast. So get them while you can - Hocus Pocus will be playing at Pleasant Park on October 16 and tickets just went on sale. Get them here. And How the Grinch Stole Christmas will be shown on December 18. Tickets are on sale for that event too here.

🌳 Plant the Peak
Help offset all the tree loss from development by applying to the 2026 Plant the Peak program. Offered on a first come, first served basis, the program covers all costs for the purchase and installation of one of 14 different tree types.

📷️ Public Safety / Flock
Mark your calendars - A public safety committee meeting will take place on October 1 to review the use of Flock Safety license plate readers.

⚛️ What is Apex doing about Forever Chemicals?
Apex approved 800 homes and a daycare on its old sludge field. A homebuilder tested the ground and walked away. Nothing in the Town’s own process would have caught it - and nothing has changed since. What is the Town doing about forever chemicals?

A Final Note:

Thank you for taking time out of your day today to read this week’s edition of The Peak Weekly. If you love it, please forward it to a friend. If you don’t love it, please unsubscribe.

And, as always, if you have any ideas of how to make this newsletter better, want to nominate a local business or organization to be featured, or anything else, please respond to this email or email me directly at [email protected]

See you next Thursday... 😘