Author: Scott D. Yost

On Wednesday, Sept. 16, the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (NCDHHS) announced that it received a good dose of funding from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that will enable the state to partner with Federally Qualified Health Centers to do things like inform people of cancer’s warning signs, and, most importantly, increase colorectal cancer screenings across the state.

Once or twice a month, the Guilford County Sherriff’s Department is so anxious to find someone that it turns to the public for help, and, on Thursday, Sept. 17, the department did just that in order to find a suspected thief who’s possibly armed and is on the run. Recently, he seems to have been in Greensboro, Stokesdale and Rockingham County and he’s presumably still in the central North Carolina area.

That doesn’t really flow well off the lips when put into song form, however, local officials are gearing up to mark what they consider to be an important milestone in county history, the Fifth Anniversary of GCEDA, an organization that attempts to overcome local turf battles and instead focus on providing a unified effort to bring in new business to the county.

Some people go through Constitution Day each year without even knowing that it is the day honoring the document that shaped our nation – however, this year, High Point can’t be accused of glossing over the day because the city is celebrating the occasion in style.

Greensboro, High Point and Guilford County as a whole are having to find some new blood to fill a couple of key economic development spots that have opened up in the county.

In recent years, the City of High Point has been doing everything it can to revitalize its once faltering downtown, and a new incentives package meant to bring jobs to one area of downtown is expected to continue that progress.

After quite a scare over the expected exit of poll workers this year, the Guilford County Board of Elections is now confident that it has enough help to carry out the 2020 election. However, some counties across the state are struggling to fill their positions in light of the fear over the coronavirus pandemic.

A lot of people have been wondering whether there will actually be a fall furniture market in High Point given the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions. However, on Tuesday, Sept. 15, High Point Market Authority President and CEO Tom Conley said it’s currently full steam ahead.

The Guilford County Board of Commissioners is preparing to fill a $7.7 million hole in the construction of a new mental health campus in Greensboro.

Slowly but surely there are signs of the world opening up again despite the shutdown, and one sign is that, at the Thursday, Sept. 17 meeting of the Guilford County Board of Commissioners, a few members of the public – well, up to 10 actually –will be allowed to attend.

There’s no vaccine yet for COVID-19, but health officials with the state of North Carolina are saying that it’s more important than ever to get a flu vaccine this year.

On Monday, Sept. 14, the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (NCDHHS) was awarded a $35 million “State Opioid Response” grant by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), which is part of the US Dept. of Health and Human Services.

It took a little time – nearly three weeks to be exact – but the Guilford County Sheriff’s Department now says it has its man in custody for a rape, kidnaping and robbery case that occurred earlier last month in the southern part of Guilford County. This week, the Sheriff’s Department announced that, along with the assistance from the Greensboro Police Department, Guilford County Sheriff’s Dept. Detective A. Fleming was able to identify and charge a man – Christian Keymar Thompson – as the alleged perpetrator of the violent crime that was committed on Tuesday, Aug. 11.

The Miracle League will hold a “drive-through” parade for its registered players on Friday, Sept. 11 from 6 to 8 p.m. That will take place at the High Point Athletic Complex at 2920 School Park Road, the home of the Miracle League field.

On Thursday, Sept. 10, the Guilford County Board of Commissioners gave notice that – one week later, on Thursday, Sept. 17 – the board will hold a public hearing on $25 million in “education revenue bonds” for Piedmont Classical High School – a charter school at 4100 Yanceyville Road.

Chairman of the Guilford County Board of Commissioners Jeff Phillips has sent a letter to US Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Dr. Ben Carson requesting that the county take over the administration of the Guilford County Continuum of Care (CoC).

You probably wouldn’t have dreamed at this time last year that you would soon be living in a world where library visits were by appointment only – however, if you’re in High Point, that’s now the world you live in.

The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (NCDHHS) has developed a COVID-19 Exposure Notification app called ‘SlowCOVIDNC’ and the new tool to fight the spread of the virus will be in the hands – or, rather, in the phones of – North Carolinians later this month.

The State of North Carolina is continuing to have trouble reporting accurate numbers regarding the COVID-19 pandemic.

Beginning on Sept. 17, the GreenHill Gallery and Shop in downtown Greensboro will be open for business on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays from noon to 5 p.m. each day.

The International Civil Rights Center and Museum wants everyone to mark Thursday, Sept. 17 and Friday, Sept. 18 down on their calendars. On those two days in the afternoon the museum is holding a “Constitution Day” celebration that will involve a lot of serious dialogue about the US Constitution, the significance of it, and even its shortcomings.

Now that September is here, life in Guilford County government is getting back to something remotely resembling normal, and one clue of that is that the county is holding a Guilford County Animal Services Advisory Board meeting on Thursday, Sept. 10.

Early on in the pandemic, cashiers at pharmacies, grocery stores and other retail outlets began doing their business behind transparent Plexiglas shields. Starting on Thursday, Sept. 3, the Guilford County Board of Commissioners jumped on that bandwagon.

You may have never heard of “BioBlitz,” or, for that matter, a “Parks for Pollinators” campaign – however, this month Guilford County Parks is indeed hosting a BioBlitz for a new Parks for Pollinators program ­– and all the county’s naturalists who want to participate need is a camera or smartphone and a good helping of curiosity.

According to numbers obtained through a public records request, so far, during the pandemic, Guilford County government has spent over a quarter of a million dollars to put 370 homeless people up at hotels.

On Saturday, Sept. 5 and on Labor Day this year –– Monday, Sept. 7 – the Museum debuted two versions of its new on-line filmed tour, “The Battlegrounds of the Struggle for Civil Rights.” The two versions of the filmed tour focus on the widely acclaimed Permanent Exhibit at the museum.

Well, enter some help from an unexpected source, the North Carolina SweetPotato Commission, which has produced curriculum materials for schools and is now trying to get the word out to educators that the materials are available for the new school year. On Friday, Aug. 28, CoCo Daughtry, the communications specialist for the commission, said that the programs are available for schools free of charge. Daughtry said the materials teach a variety of subjects including farming, culinary arts, math and English.

North Carolina Election officials worked on Wednesday, Sept. 2 and on Thursday, Sept. 3 to get their advice out to the public as to how people who vote by mail should behave on Election Day.

Say Yes Guilford, a program that helps graduates of Guilford County Schools get into college and helps pay for their college education, has – like everyone else in the pandemic – had to make major changes in the way it conducts business. In a Wednesday, Sept. 2 message to Say Yes students, families and supporters, Say Yes CEO Wendy Poteat let it be known that the group would still be helping students this school year – albeit with a lot of changes in place.

If you live in High Point and can’t pay your water bill or your power bill, don’t fret – you can almost certainly get some relief.

As part of its very broad measures to address the COVID-19 threat, Guilford County is now providing funds to houses of worship to help them pay for cleaning and disinfecting the pews and everything else inside.

On Thursday, Sept. 3, the Guilford County Sheriff’s Department put out a press release to offer the department’s view of a Facebook post critical of the action of three deputies.

A new county-wide initiative led by the Guilford County Coalition on Infant Mortality – in partnership with Ready for School, Ready for Life – is being implemented to see that more babies are born healthy and enjoy a healthy beginning to their lives.

According to Collicutt, one plan submitted to the NC Board of Elections would mean Guilford County would offer 87 percent more early voting hours available than in the 2016 general election. He also said that those venues for early voting will include places like gyms and basketball courts where there can be a good deal of distance between voters waiting in line and casting their ballots.

Guilford County has had so much trouble giving away free money to local businesses that it’s now started to advertise the fact that the money is available – but changes in Facebook’s rules regarding election ads have been putting a crimp in the county’s ad campaign attempt.

On Thursday, Sept. 3, the Guilford County Board of Commissioners is scheduled to make a decision that will be important to a lot of Summerfield citizens. The board is set to decide whether or not to waive the county’s “First Right of Refusal” to take ownership of the property and meeting space that’s now the main meeting place for the Summerfield Town Council.

On Friday, Aug 28, the NC Department of Health and Human Services (NCDHHS) announced that “once again court rulings affirm the integrity and fairness of the Departments’ managed care procurement process.”

It’s a safe bet that Guilford County government, in past years, hasn’t spent $150,000 on facemasks and hand-sanitizer, but the county just conducted a recent mass purchase of those items and now it has the task of getting them into the hands of the members of the community who need them.

Right now, a lot of local business activity has slowed to a crawl because of the COVID-19 shut down orders, but that’s certainly not the case when it comes to election activity.

You still can’t come to the Guilford County Board of Commissioners meeting, but the fact that it’s being held in the board’s regular meeting room in the Old Guilford County Court House – rather than entirely online – is a welcome sign of a trend back to normalcy in the time of the COVID-19 pandemic.

On Tuesday, Sept. 1, the Guilford County Sheriff’s Department announced a big change in the way it oversees detention officers in the county’s two jails: The department is implementing body-worn cameras in both the Greensboro and High Point jail.

A lot of businesses need financial help right now thanks to a devastation of their commerce caused by the coronavirus shut down – and airports are one group where the pain is being felt the most. However, this week Republican 13th District Congressman Ted Budd made an announcement that should help the hobbled airport pay for one project. It’s a nearly $2 million grant for PTI that will go toward an ongoing effort to reduce airport noise in the surrounding neighborhoods.

High Point Economic Development Corp. President Loren Hill announced recently that he would be stepping down from that position at the end of the year, so perhaps it’s fitting that, in his last year, Hill was presented with a prestigious honor for his efforts, the Stanley Frank Economic and Workforce Development Award.

The Guilford County Board of Commissioners has approved allocating $500,000 of emergency federal COVID-19 relief funds – from the now well-known CARES Act – to non-profit agencies so that those agencies can open extended learning centers for area elementary school children.

One item that will be on the ballot for Guilford County voters to decide in November is a quarter-cent increase in the sales tax. At the Guilford County Board of Commissioners, Thursday, Aug. 27 work session, many commissioners openly expressed their aggravation over the fact that a group of prominent business leaders in the community didn’t sound like they were going to get behind the move and push for the sales tax increase.

Anyone who looked at the state’s COVID-19 numbers on Saturday, Aug. 29 was likely shocked to see a dramatic spike in the number of positive cases reported that day. But, fear not, that jump was highly misleading because, in reality, for reasons that are still under investigation, the state received in a single day roughly 1,000 positive cases from much earlier in August.

After a highly successful career leading the High Point Economic Development Corp., Loren Hill, the organization’s president, is stepping down from that position after two decades.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic began earlier this year, the Guilford County Sheriff’s Department has been taking precautions to prevent an outbreak in the county’s two jails. On Thursday, Aug. 27, the department reported some good news in that regard. Though the Sheriff’s Department had found a half-dozen jail-related cases among staff earlier this summer, a new round of testing didn’t find any additional cases.

There’s an interesting tidbit about past primary elections in Guilford County and North Carolina that you probably didn’t know.

On Wednesday, Aug. 26, the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (NCDHHS) announced that it’s added an important new information marker to the COVID-19 Data Dashboard – a website that the state uses as a central clearing house for public information about the virus.