The Wyndham Championship will be here before you know it, Monday, August 14 to Sunday, August 20. And it’s really too early to tell, but if this unusually cool August weather continues, it’s going to be great for watching some of the best golfers in the world out at Sedgefield.
The Wyndham has been attracting more and more of the top players every year. The word is that the pros love the Sedgefield course and enjoy playing in Greensboro.
We should know how to run a golf tournament here because we’ve been doing it since 1938. That first year the total prize money was $5,000 and the tournament attracted a lot of golfers because of the big money being offered. Sam Snead won $1,200 as the first winner.
False alarm on News of the Weird. Chuck Shepherd started News of the Weird as a letter to friends and it grew into a syndicated column carried by newspapers all over the country. When we received word that Shepherd was retiring, we called the syndicate to find out if they were offering a replacement column, but got no answer.
So this week we found out that Shepherd has retired just like he said he would, but News of the Weird lives on and the latest column is in this edition of the Rhino Times.
Last year Greensboro voters approved $126 million in bonds, and $25 million was for the downtown. Most of that money is planned to be spent on downtown streetscaping, mainly Elm, Davie, Church and Bellemeade streets.
Greensboro Department of Transportation Director Adam Fischer said they are still in the planning stages for exactly how the money will be spent and they plan to ask for input this fall to find out what the public would like to see.
He said he thought there were some areas where it will be easier to work than others, and they may get started on some of the streets as early as next spring.
Fischer also said that it wasn’t part of this bond project, but that Greene Street north of West Market was slated for streetscaping next spring, and the funds had already been allocated.
According to Fischer, the work they will do on Greene Street will work whether that portion of the street stays one-way or is changed to two-way, like both the northern and southern portions of Greene Street. It has long been the goal of some members of the City Council to have Greene Street become a two-way street its entire length, but so far the votes haven’t been there to do it.
My mother, who will be 90 next month, received a robo-call purportedly from the Internal Revenue Service saying she was going to be arrested if she didn’t call some number. Instead, my mother called me and I assured her that the IRS does not use robo-calls to threaten people with arrest.
But that means another scam preying on the elderly is out there and no doubt some will call the number and give them financial information.
If you have any doubts about the validity of a call from the IRS, hang up the phone, look up the IRS number in the phone book and call them, but don’t give out any information to people claiming to be from the IRS on the phone.
Last week there was an event giving a home to a veteran in Adams Farm due to the efforts of Building Homes for Heroes.
District 1 City Councilmember Sharon Hightower was invited, as was District 28 state Sen. Gladys Robinson. When Robinson spoke, she welcomed the family to Senate District 28.
The problem is that the house in Adam’s Farm is not in City Council District 1 represented by Hightower nor is it in Senate District 28 represented by Robinson. The house is in City Council District 5 represented by Tony Wilkins and Senate District 27 represented by Trudy Wade.
Since Hightower and Robinson are Democrats and Wilkins and Wade are Republicans, some might see a grand conspiracy in the mix-up. But then again, as frequently as the districts change in North Carolina, with the ongoing battle between the Republican legislature and the Democratic federal court judges, who can keep up.
If you haven’t been down South Elm Street in a while, it’s worth a trip. What was once the sleepy little corner of Lewis and South Elm streets is hopping.
I was there recently at the Downtown Greensboro Inc. office talking to DGI President Zack Matheny, and after 5 p.m. I kept noticing people walking past on the sidewalk out front. It was a Tuesday afternoon, and there was no event scheduled, but that didn’t stop the steady stream of mostly young adults strolling past the office.
Lewis and Elm is pretty much the epicenter of Andy Zimmerman’s efforts downtown. The many businesses he has had a hand in bringing to the downtown are attracting a crowd even on Tuesday afternoon.
This is really getting funny. Last week we reported that the North Carolina State Board of Elections and Ethics Enforcement held a public hearing, the only problem being that there is no State Board of Elections and Ethics Enforcement because Gov. Roy Cooper refuses to appoint it.
Now the North Carolina Republican Party has filed a complaint against Cooper with the State Board of Elections and Ethics Enforcement for alleged illegal campaign activities, but once again there is actually no one to hear the complaint because the board doesn’t exist, except on paper.
The North Carolina Supreme Court is supposed to rule this month on whether or not the legislature can create a State Board of Elections and Ethics Enforcement and decide the makeup of the board. But until a final ruling comes down, this board that doesn’t exist will evidently continue to hold public hearings and accept complaints, except how can something that doesn’t exist accept a complaint?
