When Wake County Commissioner Lindy Brown came rolling in to eastern Wake County with fellow commissioners last Monday, she saw both some of the needs and successes here.

Impressed with the work of the East Wake Foundation in Wendell, Brown said county commissioners should fund more programs like it to help provide “equal opportunity in education.”

She also saw a need for more open space and partnering with the towns to build more parks adjacent to new schools.

Brown was only one of the commissioners who toured eastern Wake County with the mayors and town managers of Knightdale, Wendell and Zebulon. Wake County manager David Cooke also was on the tour.

“We just thought this was a good way to get them down to eastern Wake County,” said Zebulon Mayor Bob Matheny, who along with Knightdale Mayor Russell Killen and Wendell Mayor Harold Broadwell invited the commissioners to tour the area.

“We thought they’d like to see some of the things they helped fund,” he said.

Town leaders took commissioners on the morning tour to highlights in all three towns, about 20 sites. Those included the jointedly funded Knightdale Community Park, the East Regional library in Knightdale and the park and school locations of the new development Wendell Falls on the outskirts of Wendell’s extraterritorial planning district. They also toured Zebulon’s old Wakelon School that’s being converted to the town hall and other placees.

Not all of the projects received county funds, but many did.

“I think it’s given them a better idea of the true flavor of what’s out here,” said Broadwell.

Broadwell said commissioners saw why Wendell wanted to extend its ETJ to include the massive new development Wendell Falls now under construction on the outskirts of town. The county now has planning jurisdiction in the area.

Commissioner Harold Webb wished they only had more time to see the human needs in the eastern part of the county.

He noted that this trip was limited to infrastructure. He pointed to the work the Eastern Regional Center in Zebulon, a model for two other centers and a third the county is planning to build.

“We need to take a look at the needs of school children, the elderly, mental health issues, and all the needs that high income people don’t have,” he said.

Commissioner Tony Gurley, who represents western Wake County, said meetings often take him to this side of the county. But he said he welcomed the chance to see projects the county and the towns had partnered on here.

The tour gave County Commission chair Joe Bryan a chance to show his digs. Bryan lives in Knightdale.

He said commissioners can hear about eastern Wake County in meetings, but there’s nothing like the real thing.

“We wanted the county commissioners to see this firsthand,” he said.