Author: John Hammer

The 72nd annual Kirkwood Fourth of July Parade will be held on Sunday, July 4 beginning under the huge American flag on Independence Drive at 5 p.m.

Beginning on Monday, July 12, some people who go to downtown Greensboro to shop or dine may be able to park in any of the five currently operating city-owned parking decks for two hours free.

July is national Parks and Recreation Month. johThe Greensboro Parks and Recreation Department celebration of the month includes a tie-dying session, the relaunch of Adult Recess after taking a year off because of COVID-19 restrictions and a citywide scavenger hunt.

The statewide moratorium on evictions ends July 1, following a vote of the North Carolina Council of State not to extend the moratorium for another month.

The City of Greensboro announced on Wednesday, June 30, that the mask mandate for City of Greensboro-owned facilities was being relaxed on Tuesday, July 6.

Former District 5 Greensboro City Councilmember Tony Wilkins has announced he will be running for his old District 5 seat in the March 2022 City Council election.

The Triad Real Estate and Building Industry Coalition (TREBIC) has announced that Marlene Sanford will be leaving after serving 22 years as president.

The Greensboro Science Center (GSC) announced that the popular Zoo Trek program is being relaunched beginning Saturday, July 3.

The Fourth of July is on Sunday this year, which has moved Fun Fourth in Downtown Greensboro to Saturday, July 3, and the officially recognized city holiday to Monday, July 5.

Speculation about why Greensboro City Manager David Parrish resigned, effective June 30, abounds. One theory is that Parrish saw the handwriting on the wall and decided to leave on his own terms, unlike former Guilford County Manager Marty Lawing and High Point City Manager Greg Demko.

The entire 2021 Greensboro City Council will now be held in March 2022, following action by the state legislature, inaction by Gov. Roy Cooper and action by the City Council.

Finally, one month before filing was set to open for the Greensboro City Council elections, it is official that the election will be delayed until March 2022 and filing will be in December of this year.

The City of Greensboro has lost an unusually high number of top administrators this year.

The City of Greensboro sent out a curious press release about the new Eugene Street Parking Deck on Wednesday, June 23.

According to WalletHub Greensboro is the 22nd best run city in the country and the third best run city in North Carolina.

At nearly every public comment period at City Council meetings for the past several years there have been speakers about Marcus Deon Smith, who died on Sept. 8, 2018 after being restrained by Greensboro police officers.

Work is finally starting again on the Guilford College Road widening project near West Market Street.

The North Carolina state Senate released its proposed budget for 2021-2022 and 20222-2023 on Monday, June 21.

The historic Carolina Theatre in downtown Greensboro has announced two summer movies series beginning in July.

Fun Fourth in Downtown Greensboro will be back in 2021 – a day early, on Saturday, July 3.

Those watching the June 15 City Council meeting would be justified in assuming that masks were not required at city hall.  Not a single member of the City Council wore a mask during the meeting.  The city manager, city attorney and city staff members making presentations also were not wearing masks while on camera.

Greensboro will probably not be opposing the proposed solar farm on Mount Hope Church Road north of McConnell Road at the Guilford County Planning Board meeting on Monday, June 21, according to Mayor Nancy Vaughan. Vaughan said, “The information we had was faulty.”

The Greensboro City Council and city staff were blindsided by the planned 880-acre solar farm just outside the city limits off McConnell Road.

The Greensboro City Council had a lengthy discussion on the proposed contract to fund Downtown Greensboro Inc. (DGI) at the meeting on Tuesday, June 15.

The June 15 City Council meeting was the last one for Parrish as city manager.  His resignation becomes official on June 30.

The City Council appeared to settle the issue of its own upcoming election at the Tuesday, June 15 City Council meeting. City Councilmember Yvonne Johnson made a motion that the mayor and at-large City Council races be held at the same time as the district City Council races and it passed by an 8-1 vote with Councilmember Justin Outling voting no.

The Greensboro City Council unanimously passed the $620 million 2021-2022 budget on Tuesday, June 15.

Senate Bill 722, which postpones municipal elections in cities including Greensboro that elect councilmembers from districts, has passed the state Senate and state House. It is expected to be signed into law by Gov. Roy Cooper this week.

A resolution stating the Greensboro City Council’s opposition to an 800-acre solar farm has been added to the agenda for the Tuesday, June 15 meeting.

The first stage of changing the way City of Greensboro employees are paid will be in the budget presented to the City Council on Tuesday, June 15. Beginning the move away from the current merit system of awarding raises to employees and to the step plan is currently in the budget according to Mayor Nancy Vaughan.

Fewer than 6,000 people in the state have tested positive for COVID-19 and have not recovered or died according to the data on the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (NCDHHS) website.

An item on the lengthy agenda for the Tuesday, June 15 City Council meeting gives Greensboro Planning Director Sue Schwartz more power.

The City Council has pushed back the date for partially opening meetings to the public to July 13, 2021.

It wasn’t included on the agenda, but at the June 1 meeting the City Council received a rare update on the Cure Violence program. 

The Greensboro Transit Agency (GTA) has announced expanded Sunday bus service will begin on Sunday, July 4.

The Greensboro City Council meeting on Tuesday, June 15 will be historic. The meeting, which begins at 5:30 p.m., will be the first meeting since March 2020 that the public has been allowed to attend in person according to the agenda.

The Tuesday, June 15 Greensboro City Council meeting has 73 items on the agenda.

Politics makes strange bedfellows, and in the case of House Bill 64 the Republicans in the state Senate are aligned with the North Carolina Press Association in support of a bill to make more information about government employees a public record.

The Greensboro City Council is scheduled to pass the 2021-2022 fiscal year budget at the Tuesday, June 15 meeting.

The summer will be a lot more normal with fans at the Wyndham Championship at Sedgefield County Club August 11 to August 15.

It’s getting close to the middle of June and nobody knows when the next Greensboro City Council will be held.

The Greensboro City Council settled on a $135 million bond referendum at the Monday, June 7 work session.   

The 2021-2022 City of Greensboro budget unofficially increased by about $1 million at the City Council work session on Monday, June 7. The manager’s recommended budget totaled a little over $617 million, but the budget presented to the City Council for approval on Tuesday, June 15 will total over $618 million.

As Mayor Nancy Vaughan said, Greensboro is an “outlier” when it comes to take home police cars. This year the Greensboro City Council has a great opportunity to fix a problem it didn’t create, but so far the City Council is opposed.  It is a unique opportunity because the federal government decided to give Greensboro more than $59 million to spend pretty much on anything the City Council wants.

A tax increase may be discussed by the Greensboro City Council at a work session on Monday, June 7. City Manager David Parrish did not include a proposed tax increase in the manager’s recommended budget for fiscal year 2021-2022.

The Greensboro City Council “hybrid” work session on Tuesday, June 1 was typical, if anything can be called typical in 2021.

City Council left the proposed step plan for employee compensation up in the air at the council work session on Tuesday, June 1, despite a survey showing employees oppose the plan by more than a two-to-one margin.

Cone Health and Sentara Healthcare have been working toward uniting into one entity since August 2020. Wednesday, June 2, it was announced that Cone and Sentara had mutually agreed not to move forward with the affiliation.