The Cary Report

Good people of Cary,

It has been a seriously busy week. Cary has a permanent town manager again, the town’s Open Space Plan took its next step, and Monday brought an hours-long police standoff near Lochmere that most of the town never got an alert for.

The featured story this week is a happier one: a bunch of new businesses are coming to Cary. A Shark Tank seafood shop is coming to East Chatham Street, a Southern lifestyle chain just opened at Crossroads, and two new restaurants recently opened. All four are inside.

And since it is Halloween week, the Weekly Destination is Downtown Cary Park, which is fully decorated for the season right now. Pictures are included!

And remember, in-person early voting ends this Saturday, October 31, at 3 PM. If you have not voted yet and want to beat the crowds, try to make sure to get to the polls.

All of this, and more, below.

Thank you for continuing to support local,
James

Cary has a permanent town manager again. Town Council voted unanimously on Thursday night to appoint Russ Overton, who had been serving as interim town manager since December 15, to the permanent job. He was sworn in before the meeting adjourned.

Overton is Cary’s 12th town manager since the town adopted the council-manager form of government in 1961. He first joined the town as an engineer in 1998, and he stepped into the interim role after Sean Stegall resigned last year.

The appointment was not listed on the meeting agenda, and council made it after coming out of a closed session late in the night. The Line reported that council did not run a national search for the job, and that Overton’s salary in the permanent role is $344,000 a year.

Before the vote, council spent part of the night on the cleanup that followed Stegall’s time in the job. Three outside investigations looked into how Town Hall was run under Stegall, and together the reports listed 39 fixes.

On Thursday, council put deadlines and clearer rules around some of the biggest ones. The town will now survey its own employees every two years instead of every three, so that the town hears about problems sooner, any change to a town job needs a written explanation to council first, and the town manager’s role is now spelled out in the town rules as the top administrator, the person who runs the day-to-day operation. Overton now has to act on the nine fixes identified and report back to the council mid-2027.

Council got its first full look at the town’s Open Space Plan on Thursday. The plan is a long-term guide for the parts of Cary that stay green: parks, greenways, woods, and land that the town protects from development.

The numbers behind it may feel surprising to some of you. Staff told council that about 42 percent of Cary is open space today, roughly 34 square miles, and that about 30 percent of the town is protected for good.

The plan sorts that land into five kinds, from neighborhood parks to large nature preserves, and it sets five goals for it: protect more of it, connect the pieces to each other, take care of what the town already has, support the people and groups that use it, and keep growing it as Cary grows.

Thursday was the first step in this plan. Council sent it to the Planning and Zoning Board, a board of residents that reviews plans like this one and gives council its advice, and then the plan will come back to council for a vote.

If the idea sounds familiar, it is the same question that has been playing out this fall on a smaller scale at 600 and 604 Kildaire Farm Road. The town owns those two wooded parcels, and neighbors and preservationists are asking the town to keep them as open space.

Cary has quite a few business openings and announcements this week. Here’s what is going on:

The biggest name of the bunch is Topsail Steamer, and it is headed for 214 E. Chatham Street, the downtown storefront that has sat empty since Littles of Cary closed. Topsail sells seafood boil pots that you take home and steam yourself, with the seasoning and the sides already in the pot. Founder Danielle Mahon started the company on Topsail Island in 2017, and she took it to Shark Tank in Season 16, where she made a deal with Todd Graves and Lori Greiner. The Triangle Business Journal reports that the Cary shop expects to open in March. The local franchisees are familiar faces: they also own the Color Me Mine studio at Waverly Place.

Palmetto Moon opened on Saturday at 213 Crossroads Boulevard. It is the sixth North Carolina store for the Charleston-based chain. Palmetto Moon sells apparel, gifts, drinkware, and collegiate gear with a Southern bent, and the Crossroads shop is its first in Cary.

Ala Rahi is open at 1080 Darrington Drive, in the space that Okja K-Pub had. The menu covers Turkish, Mediterranean, and Pakistani food, which is a combination that Cary did not have before. It is dinner only for now, and it is closed on Mondays.

The Balkan Table is open in Lochmere Pavilion, at 2425 Kildaire Farm Road, in the space that Bocci Trattoria & Pizzeria had. Owner Neli Dimitrov serves food from the Balkans and Eastern Europe, which is another first for this part of town.

And the run is not over. Cooper’s Hawk Winery & Restaurant opens November 9 at Parkside Town Commons, out in west Cary. If you try any of the new spots before I do, tell me what you thought.

Downtown Cary Park is fully dressed up for the season. It is especially impressive if you visit after dark, with a fog machine, giant spiders, spooky skeletons, and so much more. Go in the early evening, when the light is dropping and the decorations are on, and walk the full loop around the lawn before you settle in anywhere.

There are plenty of events happening at the park, too. On Thursday night, the Cary Police Department hosts its Trunk or Treat along Park Street, with costumed trick-or-treating from 5:30 to 7:30 PM.

It is worth mentioning that Willow Isle, the octopus pavilion in the lower pond, is still fenced off months after it closed, and the Skywalk is still closed after a tree came down on its railing in the last big storm. The rest of the park is open, and it is a ton of fun to wander around.

For a Halloween walk that does not require a ticket or a plan, it is about as good as Cary gets right now. Bring the kids in costume, bring the dog, and take the long way around.