Author: John Hammer

It appears the state government in Raleigh is united in the effort to have public schools in the state reopen their classrooms. A bill was introduced in the state House Monday, Feb. 1 that would require all public schools to offer in-classroom instruction for parents and students who choose it.

The City of Greensboro is selling the 1.6 acre cloverleaf from Summit Avenue to Murrow Boulevard for development.

The COVID-19 vaccine distribution debacle in Guilford County even has red and blue working together. The co-chairs of the Guilford County Legislative Delegation Democratic state Rep. Ashton Clemmons and Republican state Rep. Jon Hardister sent a joint letter to Secretary of the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services Dr. Mandy Cohen.

Former District 5 City Councilmember Tony Wilkins has announced he will be running for City Council in 2021.

To describe the agenda for the virtual Greensboro City Council meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 2 as light would not do it justice. Perhaps ultra-light would be better.

Republicans in the North Carolina state Senate are working on a bill to reopen schools.

Mecklenburg County held a mass vaccination event last weekend at Charlotte Motor Speedway that vaccinated an estimated 16,000 people. The mass vaccination event planned for this weekend at Bank of America Stadium is expected to vaccinate 20,000 people. Durham is planning a mass vaccination event to vaccinate 17,000 people a week. Chair of the Guilford County Board of Commissioners Skip Alston reportedly spent all weekend on the phone tracking down and getting 400 doses of the vaccine for Guilford County, so the county would not have cancel appointments that had already been made.

Tuesday, Feb. 2 at 3 p.m., the Greensboro City Council will meet virtually with the Guilford County Legislative Delegation.

The Greensboro City Council has rescheduled its annual retreat for Thursday Feb. 11 and Friday, Feb. 12. The two-day meeting will be held virtually rather than in the board room at the ACC Hall of Champions at the Greensboro Coliseum Complex.

Greensboro received word that it has been awarded nearly $9 million from the federal government for rental and utility assistance payments.

The restaurant and entertainment ordinance proposed by Mayor Nancy Vaughan hasn’t gotten past the proposal stage, but already the City of Greensboro is being threatened with a lawsuit.

The Triad Business Journal this week published the salaries of the top 25 city employees in both cities, making that comparison pretty easy.  All salary figures are from the Triad Business Journal. Overall, Greensboro pays its top city employees a lot more than Winston-Salem.  Although cities organize their governments differently, the most basic comparison is that Greensboro pays more.

The leadership of Greensboro and Guilford County don’t seem to be sure why Guilford County was shorted over 11,400 vaccines this week and don’t seem overly concerned about it.

NC State Sen. Jeff Jackson from Charlotte announced he is going to run in the Democratic primary for the US Senate seat currently held by Republican Sen. Richard Burr, who announced he would not run for a fourth term in 2022.

This weekend Guilford County, for whatever reason, got shorted over 10,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine. At a press conference on Monday, Jan. 25, neither Chairman of the Guilford County Board of Commissioners Skip Alston nor Greensboro Mayor Nancy Vaughan had a good explanation as to why the vaccines were not delivered as expected.  The result was that over 10,000 appointments had to be cancelled.

Guilford County had over 10,000 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine taken away this week and nobody seems to know why.

The City of Greensboro is holding a virtual public hearing for ideas on how the city can reduce its carbon footprint, what is called the Strategic Energy Plan (SEP). The virtual event, what is being called “public listening session,” which is evidently the new politically correct term for the old standard public hearing, is being held via Zoom from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 27.

The 2021 election season started early and raised its ugly head at the Greensboro City Council meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 19. At the end of the meeting, Councilmember Marikay Abuzuaiter went after Councilmember Justin Outling for what she said was a violation of campaign law.

The Greensboro City Council held its first work session on the Summerfield Farms Village proposal, Tuesday, Jan. 19, although Summerfield Farms Village is not on the agenda and was never mentioned.

Along with amending the nondiscrimination ordinance on Tuesday, Jan. 19, the Greensboro City Council also reauthorized nondiscrimination amendments passed in 2015 by a unanimous vote.

Mayor Nancy Vaughan has instituted a new unwritten policy concerning appointments to boards and commissions.

Anyone looking for good news in the report from Greensboro Coliseum Manager Matt Brown at the City Council work session on Tuesday, Jan. 19 was disappointed.

The Greensboro City Council, at it Tuesday, Jan. 19 meeting, passed a new nondiscrimination ordinance that includes prohibiting discrimination based on “sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression.”

The city of Greensboro’s proposed bar and restaurant ordinance gives an enormous amount of power to the “city” to determine the punishment meted out when an act of violence occurs.

There is still no information about the “Ordinance Amendment” on the Greensboro City Council agenda for the Tuesday, Jan. 19 meeting.

Four annexations and original zoning requests are on the agenda for the Tuesday, Jan. 19 Greensboro City Council meeting.

First Tee of the Triad is no more. Not that the organization doesn’t exist, but it is now called First Tee – Central Carolina.

The Greensboro City Council agenda for the Tuesday, Jan. 19 virtual meeting has no information on the two items that are likely to garner the most discussion.

The Greensboro City Council has scheduled a virtual work session for 3 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 19.

With Greensboro Mayor Nancy Vaughan, Chairman of the Guilford County Board of Commissioners Skip Alston and North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper all issuing emergency and executive orders, it can get somewhat confusing for the regular old citizen just trying to obey the law.

The City of Greensboro announced on Thursday, Jan. 14 that, beginning on Tuesday, Jan. 19, some city offices will be operating at reduced hours, which will be from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Good news for small businesses, the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) portal will re-open for applications from small lenders on Friday, Jan. 15.

According to Bloomberg, North Carolina has only distributed 25.8 percent of the vaccine allocated to the state by the federal government and that ranks North Carolina 48th in the country in vaccine distribution. The poor distribution in the state is of particular concern since reports are that future vaccine allocations from the federal government may be based on the state’s performance in actually vaccinating people.

Downtown Greensboro Inc. (DGI) is using an opportunity to win $500 to encourage people to not just visit, but spend money in downtown Greensboro. #DGSOtogo

Chip Roth officially announced he is running for the District 3 City Council seat on Wednesday, Jan. 13.

Beginning on Wednesday, Jan. 13 at noon, the NC state House will begin broadcasting its sessions live. The live stream will be broadcast on the NC General Assembly’s YouTube channel and can be accessed through the legislature’s website at www.ncleg.gov.

Bee Safe Storage and Wine Cellars is celebrating the opening of its newest location with a donation to the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

It’s not even the middle of January and the 2021 City Council race is already heating up. At the Guilford County Republican Party executive committee meeting Monday, Jan. 11, former District 5 City Councilmember Tony Wilkins announced he would be running for City Council this year.

The City Council released some information about the lawsuit over the death of Marcus Deon Smith at the Jan. 5 City Council meeting.

The North Carolina General Assembly will go into session on Wednesday, Jan. 13. It appears it is going to be tough for Guilford County in the state Senate in this session.  Committee assignments for the state Senate recently released reveal that senators from Guilford County – the state’s third largest county after Wake and Mecklenburg – don’t chair or co-chair a single committee in the state Senate.

The Greensboro Transit Agency (GTA) has announced it is renaming the paratransit service it offers. Since 1992, the paratransit service providing transportation for persons with disabilities has been called Specialized Community Area Transportation (SCAT).  The actual name was rarely used even in GTA material and the paratransit services was usually referred to as SCAT. The new name of the paratransit service is Access GSO.  The press release states, “The Access GSO name was chosen from among numerous suggestions received from riders, drivers, staff and the Greensboro Community.”

Having the United States Capitol Building taken over and desecrated by a violent mob was not something most Americans ever expected to see. To have it take place while a historic joint session of Congress was taking place made it all the more disturbing. A number of local elected officials voiced their views on that violence on Twitter.

Most Americans have seen and – regardless of political affiliation or beliefs – are horrified at the violence on Wednesday, Jan.6 at the nation’s Capitol. Republican Rep. Ted Budd (NC-13) was there in the Capitol doing the job he was elected to do when the violence occurred.   On Thursday, Jan. 7, Budd released the following statement:

The Greensboro City Council did not discuss the details of the proposed ordinance to regulate places that serve alcohol for consumption at the Tuesday, Jan. 5 work session.

Republican North Carolina Sen. Richard Burr released the following statement on Wednesday, Jan. 6 after the violence at the Capitol but before Congress had completed the certification of the electoral votes early in the morning of Thursday, Jan. 7 and confirmed that Joe Biden won the presidential election, making him President-elect Joe Biden.

Fans of the movie “Groundhog Day” should really enjoy the City Council work session on Tuesday, Jan. 5 when the City Council went over the proposed legislative agenda for 2021.

The Greensboro City Council made yet another change to the agreement to build the February 1 Place parking deck and Westin Hotel complex at its Tuesday, Jan. 5 meeting.

By consensus, at its Jan. 5 work session, the Greensboro City Council agreed to move forward with an ordinance to require bars and restaurants to meet the city’s security requirements after violent criminal activity takes place on their premises.

Greensboro is getting older, more diverse and the population density is slowly increasing according to the “Growth and Development Trends” report from the Greensboro Planning Department.

as of Monday, Jan. 4 Greensboro has recorded only one homicide.