Nice Bathrooms & Summer Camps

👋 Good morning, Apex! Today is Thursday, April 24, 2025 and this is the 16th consecutive weekly issue of The Peak Weekly.

Here is what’s inside today:

📝 Intro: Quick thoughts from yours truly

📂 Miscellaneous: Some town-related notes that didn’t fit anywhere else

🗓️ Things to Do This Week: Events and activities this coming week in and around Apex

🏢 Local Business: The latest in local small business news

🏛️ Civil News: The latest from our local government

🏃 Kids & Summertime: Highlighting a few summer camps

🐶 Animal(s) of the Week: Featured animals looking for a good home

⏪️ ICYMI: A few things worth mentioning again, just in case you missed it

👀 A Look Ahead: A quick peak at things to know beyond this week

Intro:

Last week, I made sure to tell you all about the Grand Opening Celebration at Huenique Barbershop, and shared how I was excited to finally meet Hue after several friendly email exchanges.

Well, in typical ADHD fashion, and failure to add it to my calendar, I completely missed it.

I was a day late and a dollar short, but yesterday I stopped in to finally shake his hand and check the place out.

🧻 I also discovered that he might have the fanciest bathroom in Apex…

A Few Other Quick Things: 

🤖 Peak Promptly
Thank you to those of you that helped me test my new Apex Chat Agent, The Peak Promptly. I’ve made some improvements based on a few of the questions that he wasn’t able to answer. But I still have a little more work to do on it. More to come on this.

😎 Who Do You Know?
I want to start highlighting more people in our community. Do you know an awesome kid doing awesome things? Or maybe a friend or neighbor who has done something worth celebrating? I’d love an introduction to maybe start sharing some mini stories about people in our town.

☕️ I’m Tired on Thursdays
I spend pretty much all day Wednesday putting this weekly newsletter together. And often stay up super late nit-picking every little detail (yet somehow still manage to include at least one typo or broken link each week). But… 16 weeks in, I have kept my promise. No sponsored content. No outside influence. No ads. Just straight-up value.

SO… shameless plug: if you want to grab me an extra coffee to keep me going, I wouldn’t stop you…

Miscellaneous:

🩸 Don’t Be A Wimp
It doesn’t even hurt! The Blood Drive Team for the Apex United Methodist Church will host a community blood drive with the American Red Cross as a part of Think Apex Day this Saturday from 9am-2pm in the Christian Life Center on Hughes Street downtown.

🍩 Supporting Special Olympics
Stop in the Apex Dunkin Donuts tomorrow (Friday) and help Apex PD in supporting the over 40,000 Special Olympics North Carolina athletes across our state. APD will be taking donations and selling Law Enforcement Torch Run for Special Olympics North Carolina merchandise.

📈 NC’s Economic Outlook
For the sixth straight year, North Carolina ranks among the top five states for economic outlook in the year ahead, according to the American Legislative Exchange Council’s latest Rich States, Poor States report.

💬 Apex Discord Server
I recently found out about Apex Comradeship, a Discord server (online chatroom, basically, for those who aren’t familiar). I’m new there, but seems like a very nice group of people and a great way to engage with others in the community. If you’re interested in joining, you can find it here.

Things to Do This Weekend in Apex:

Saturday, April 26

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

🧩 Puzzle Exchange with Apex PD
9am - 10:30am | Apex Baptist Church

🛝 Inclusive Playground Series
10am - 12pm | Pleasant Park

🌎️ Apex EarthFest
12pm - 4pm | Town Hall Campus

🍺 🌸 Spring Fling Beer & Bloom Festival
12pm - 10pm | Oaklyn Springs Brewery

🤔 Think Apex Day
Various Times & Locations

🌱 Seed Swap
2pm - 2:45pm | The Peak Church
 
🧨 80’s Party w/The M-80’s
8pm - 11pm | The Backyard Bar

Sunday, April 27

🎼 Peak City Singers Spring Concert
4:30pm - 6pm | The Depot

🦊 Poetry Fox Visits the Library
1:30pm - 3:30pm | Eva Perry Library

Things to Do This Weekend Nearby:

Friday, April 25
Cary Night Market
5pm - 9pm | Downtown Cary Park

Saturday, April 26
Springfest 2025
10am - 4pm | Downtown Holly Springs

This Weekend
Festival of Legends
Saturday, 10am - 4pm
Sunday, 11am - 5pm
Sugg Farm, Holly Springs

Sunday, April 27
Kentucky Derby Soiree
12pm - 4pm | 12 Oaks, Holly Springs

Local Business

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Now Open - Mi Cancun

The much-anticipated Mi Cuncun is now open in Sweetwater at 1451 Richardson Rd, Suite 105. All 5-star reviews on Google so far and the photos of the restaurant and the food all look great!

Next Up in Sweetwater (by Late Spring):

🔜 Club Pilates
🔜 Black Diamond Chiropractic
🔜 Mama Bird’s Ice Cream
🔜 Bless Your Heart Boutique

🔦 Business Spotlight

This is not a sponsored post (and nothing ever is).

I wanted to highlight the Veterinarian Clinic, GoodVets Apex.

Why? Well, I used a tool to scrape Google Maps for every Veterinarian Clinic in Apex and, while all of them have at least 4.5 stars on Google (except for the vet clinic inside of a certain chain pet supply store in Beaver Creek), GoodVets is the only one I found with a solid 5.0 star rating (101 total 5-star reviews).

While I have never been here before personally (this is not an endorsement, just an observation), they might be worth checking out if you are in search of a quality veterinarian. → GoodVets Apex Website

🕵️‍♀️ Report Card:

Wake County health inspection grades (past 7 days):

Publix Meat Department | Score: 100
Publix Seafood Department | Score: 99.5
Yagg Sii Tenn | Score: 98.5
Michaelangelo’s Pizza | Score: 98

Civil News:

🏘️ A Tale of Two Apexes
The process of updating the Town’s Affordable Housing Plan is underway. I dug into the initial draft and wanted to share my findings.

Here is what I found:

• Apex is projected to continue its rapid growth through the next decade

• Apex needs about 13,100 new units to keep up with the growth

• In Apex, the median home costs about $125k more than the median income can afford

• More than half of Apex residents categorized as “lower income” are labeled as cost-burdened or severely cost-burdened related to their housing costs

• In Wake County, first-time homelessness increased by 92.7% from 2021-2023 (3,025 vs. 1,570).

• According to continuum of care service providers sourced, “Once an Apex resident becomes homeless, it is likely they will be displaced from the community, potentially permanently.”

What neighborhoods face the greatest risk?

• People who have lived here longer

• People with lower property values

• Areas with higher concentration of Black residents

The final plan for strategies and implementation related to affordable housing is on track to conclude by the end of May. Will it be aggressive enough to address the extremely problematic issues listed above?

You can (sort of) follow along with periodic updates on the Housing Plan Update Dashboard.

But, for some reason, only partial information is on there. For example, the above slide is not included. So, if you’re interested in the whole story, you can see the most recent complete update with all of the slides (starting on Page 35) at this link.

🏚️ Tunstall House Update
The (re)bidding process is underway for the Tunstall House renovation. A couple of quick updates in the meantime. In the Mayor’s Instagram poll, the community voted largely in favor of turning the house into a community space. Several local businesses have also stepped up to offer pro-bono help to minimize the cost, including AstroWatt Electric who has offered to donate all labor and material for the electrical side of the project. Video update from Mayor Gilbert here.

💰️ 24-25 Budget Overview
The first draft of the Town Council’s budget has been published. It must be finalized and adopted by the end of June. You can read through the 196-page document here or check out a more simplified breakdown here.

🗓️ Important Upcoming Dates

Thursday, April 24
Finance Committee Meeting
9am - 11am | Town Hall

Wednesday, April 30
Parks, Recreation, and Cultural Resources Advisory Commission Meeting
6pm | Town Hall

Kids & Summertime

👩‍🚒 Camp Ignite
- Free Summer Day Camp
- For High School Girls, Ages 14-18
- Intro to Firefighting, Leadership, Teamwork & Confidence
- July 14-18, 2025
- Apply by 5/10/25

👮‍♂️ Youth Enrichment Camp
- Free Summer Day Camp
- Ages 11-14
- Traffic Safety, Solve Mock Crime Scenes, K9 Demonstrations, Jail Tour
- June 23-27 & August 4-8
- Details and Registration Info Here


🎨 Art Explorers: Art Camps for Curious Creative Kids
- Hosted by Resident Artists (and super cool people), Lauren & Caitlyn from The Studio
- Mixed Media Camps for Rising 3rd-6th Graders
- Weaving Camp for Rising 5th-9th Graders
- June 23-27, July 14-18, & July 28 - Aug 1
- All the Details & Registration Here

☀️ See all of the Summer Camps offered through Parks & Rec (starts on Page 10) of the Summer 2025 Program Guide

Animal of the Week:

Today is National Pet Care Day. Its purpose is to celebrate the efforts of organizations to make quality behavioral and medical care for pets accessible to all pets and their people.

Just for this week, instead of promoting a pet available for adoption, I thought it would be appropriate to highlight an organization called CLAWS, Inc.

CLAWS is an organization that is dedicated to helping wild and exotic animals, through educating the public as well as rescuing and rehabilitating those animals in need.

They are the only all-volunteer run rehabilitation facility in the Triangle that rehabilitates all species

Check them out here

A Look Ahead:

May 3, 2025
PeakFest
9am - 5pm | Downtown Apex

May 3-4, 2025
Marbles Kids Food Festival
9am - 4pm | Marbles Museum, Raleigh

May 4-10, 2025
Small Business Week
Various Times | Downtown Apex

May 8, 2025
Apex Love Local Showcase
4pm - 7pm | Downtown Apex

May 17, 2025
MARCH1000
10am - 1pm | Downtown Apex

In Case You Missed it

🖥️ Wake County Launches Free Online Learning Platform
Wake County Public Libraries cardholders now have free 24/7 access to thousands of on-demand video courses designed to support career growth, personal development and lifelong learning. Learn more here.

🔭 NC Science Festival - All of April
Produced by Morehead Planetarium Science Center, there are a whole bunch of things going on throughout April from Critter Tracks at Jordan Lake to Science in the Spillway at Bond Park, to a Star Party on the Tabacco Trail in Apex and much more. See all of their events taking place within a 10 mile radius of Apex here.

💡 Utility Billing Update
The review for Cycle 1 is in the comparison phase, while Cycle 2’s simulation is beginning. The Town encountered challenges in extracting legacy data from its old financial system while transitioning to the new platform. However, officials say the data itself remains sound. A final report is expected within 2 weeks and will be reviewed by the Council before findings are shared with the public.

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 have any ideas of how to make this 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. 😘