Author: Scott D. Yost

The Piedmont Triad Airport Authority that runs Piedmont Triad International Airport (PTIA) meets on a Tuesday toward the end of each month and, every time it does, PTIA Executive Director Kevin Baker provides some of the latest stats regarding passenger traffic at the airport. 

If you ever wanted to get a job in the airline or airport industry – or, for that matter, in related occupations connected with air travel, it’s a great time to apply because Piedmont Triad International Airport (PTIA) and its aviation megasite together are absolutely the dog who caught the car.

If you were born a quarter of a century ago, then you were still just a gleam in your mother’s eye when Skip Alston was already a fixture on the Guilford County Board of Commissioners.

Guilford County government constantly faces a lot of difficult challenges and now county leaders...

It’s become an annual tradition. Each year, Guilford County asks for volunteers to come out to the Guilford County Farm – which used to be the Guilford County Prison  Farm – and pick grapes for the benefit of local food banks.

The North Carolina Association of County Commissioners (NCACC) is an association of county commissioners and other county leaders from counties across the state – and this year the group’s most important meeting will be relatively easy to get to from every corner of the North Carolina because the very central county of Guilford County has won the honor of hosting the big event…

When a company plans a $458 million facility in Greensboro that will create 330 new jobs – as biomedical company ProKidney Corp. is doing – that would seem to be a very promising sign of good things to come.  However, ever since the company purchased a building and property in Greensboro in July, the company’s stock has been in sharp decline…

The opioid abuse epidemic in Guilford County – and across the country – rages on, but there’s some good news when it comes to that battle. Guilford County government, which originally expected to get about $20 million from a lawsuit settlement with opioid makers and distributors, has been informed that it will instead get nearly twice that amount…

They say you can’t teach an old dog new tricks, but you can teach a Board of Commissioners chairman who’s seemingly been on the board forever a new trick or two.

A group of residents who live along and near the 3900 block of Alamance Church Road near the intersection of Alamance Church Road and NC 62 are still complaining

If you live, work, play or dine in High Point and you want to have some say in how the city grows and functions moving forward, you only have one more chance to do so.

There were two main themes that ran thick through the Wednesday, Sept. 20 “State of the County” address given by Chairman of the Guilford County Board of Commissioners Skip Alston.

When Chairman of the Guilford County Board of Commissioners Skip Alston – with help from other elected leaders from around the county – gave a speech on the current state of the county on Wednesday, Sept. 20, he did something that isn’t easy to do – he loaded the speech with stats, numbers and other hard data while keeping it interesting.

The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (NCDHHS) is launching a program that’s been in development for a long time – “Inclusion Works” –  which is meant to make those employees with disabilities more competitive for job openings and is also meant to help integrate them more tightly into the workplace once they do get those jobs. 

It’s mid-September and that means one thing – you need to start making your plans for Halloween and Christmas. 

The Summerfield Town Council made a dramatic move on Monday, Sept. 18 – doing an about-face and, in a unanimous vote, promised developer David Couch most of what he wanted for his proposed large mixed-use development.

In June of 2021, the Guilford County Board of Commissioners adopted a resolution supporting an application to the North Carolina Department of Commerce for a special “Rural Building Reuse Grant” meant to assist Guerrilla RF, Inc – along with Koury Corporation – in renovating the vacant building at 2000 Pisgah Church Road in Greensboro.

This year, High Point University (HPU) is sponsoring 16 recent college graduates as AmeriCorps Volunteers in Service to America – also known as VISTAs. 

A lot of Spectrum cablevision customers were displeased to say the least earlier this month when their ESPN and Disney channels went blank, but that’s not stopping Guilford County government from entering into a three-year, $541,000 deal with the company that will provide much of the county’s network communication infrastructure and high-speed internet access.

On Wednesday, Sept. 27, a flight full of area veterans will take off from Piedmont Triad International Airport (PTIA) for a very special trip.

Guilford County is receiving funding from the NC Department of Health and Human Services (NCDHHS) to be used to provide assistance to low-income households in paying their water and sewer bills.

There has been a long and involved war going on in Summerfield over plans by farmer and developer David Couch to create a 973-acre residential and mixed-use development – The Villages of Summerfield Farms – in the town of about 11,000 people in northern Guilford County. 

There are few things that the Guilford County commissioners enjoy doing each year more than welcoming and honoring the kids, counselors, and staff who make Camp HOPE a very special event each summer.

The Healthy Guilford Coalition has been working to make people in the county healthier just like the name says, and now that somewhat nebulas group of public and private partners is creating a director position, which will be funded in the first year by Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist and will be housed in Guilford County government.

In May, the Guilford County Board of Commissioners approved money for a host of security upgrades for the Guilford County Juvenile Detention Facility at 15 Lockheed Court out near Piedmont Triad International Airport.

And the answer is: teal, green, yellow, orange, red – and a fox!

Guilford County Schools plans to build a school near Colfax, but some residents in the area don’t want a school there – and are in the process of filing a lawsuit against Guilford County and Guilford County Schools to stop the school from being built on the current proposed site.

If you want something, you should ask for it. Right now Piedmont Triad International Airport (PTIA) wants to be named the Best Small Airport in the USA Today Readers’ Choice 2023 Poll.

There have been a lot of big milestones at Piedmont Triad International Airport (PTIA) in the past few years, and another one is about to take place on Friday morning, Sept. 15, when Marshall USA breaks ground for its new facility at PTIA where the company will conduct aircraft maintenance, repair and overhaul – largely on big military transport planes.

Situations that cause massive grief can hit anyone suddenly, so a new and unusual class being hosted by the High Point Public Library will no doubt be helpful to those people who need to learn quickly how to adapt to and deal with sudden grief.

Did you have a living room packed full of friends for a football season kickoff party on Thursday, Aug. 31, only to see the screen go black in the middle of an exciting game? 

It all ended well, but not before some very frightening moments at Northeast Guilford High School were endured by students, teachers and administrators at the school on Tuesday, Sept. 12. 

The Guilford County Planning and Development Department is putting a lot of effort into updating Guilford County’s Comprehensive Plan, which it will use as a guide for years to come for determining zoning, growth and other matters in unincorporated Guilford County.

High Point isn’t quite New York City yet when it comes to sports offerings, however, in recent years the addition of the High Point Rockers baseball team and now, a new Major League Soccer NEXT team – the Carolina Core Football Club – the city has some fine sports offerings for local fans.

Usually, what happens in Nash County – a county in eastern North Carolina with about 100,000 people that’s a pass-through zone on the way to the Outer Banks – doesn’t even register on Guilford County’s radar.

The High Point Public Library has joined forces with the Steven Tanger Center for the Performing Arts in Greensboro once again this year to offer family four-packs of tickets to certain performances as part of the library’s “Borrow an Experience” program.

High Point University makes it into the news quite a bit – the school even once got very high praise in the British paper The Daily Mail – and now the school is making the news once again, this time for its new dental offering.

The people of northern Guilford County disagree on a lot of things – how much development should come their way, whether a municipal water system is a great idea or not, and so on – but one thing they can all agree on is this: It’s a good idea to keep the place clean and free of ugly electronic waste and related trash.

The Guilford County Sheriff’s Department is reporting that – between mid-June, and late August of this year – several female employees of Guilford County Emergency Medical Services were the victims of stalking by the same man.

The war is finally over.  No, not the war in Ukraine, but the war between Disney and Charter Communications that has left throngs of Spectrum customers across Guilford County – and across the country – without the football games, tennis matches and other sporting events they wanted to see, especially at a time when a very exciting college football season had just begun. 

Piedmont Triad International Airport (PTIA) sends out quite a few press releases each year, but on Friday, Sept. 8, the airport sent out a highly unusual one – one that shared an inspirational story that airport officials wanted people to know about. 

As Mel Brooks says, “It’s good to be the king.”  These days, it’s also very good to be an employee of Guilford County government and it got a lot better to be one on Thursday, Sept. 7, when the Guilford County Board of Commissioners voted to give all employees a slew of new perks and benefits on top of the many, many others the board has granted in recent years.

A lot of people move to rural southeastern Guilford County for the peace and quiet. So, a group of residents who live along and near the 3900 block of Alamance Church Road – just west of the intersection of Alamance Church Road and NC 62 – are, to say the least, not pleased that loud weddings, parties, concerts and even Mule-A-Ramas are being held on 3 acres of land right next to them.

The president’s State of the Union Address is given every year and usually generates a lot of publicity, while the chair of the Guilford County Board of Commissioners’ State of the County Address rarely happens.

There’s some computer software on the web that will tell you pretty much what your face will look like in the year 2040, but there’s no such software that tells counties how they’ll look.

When COVID-19 first hit, there was a debate as to whether it would run its course through the world and then disappear or if it would continue to recur each year and become a largely seasonal threat like the flu. 

It’s September once again and, for the Guilford County Sheriff’s Department, the month means something special.

Inflation in recent years hasn’t just shown up in the price of eggs – it’s also been hitting pretty hard when it comes to the Guilford County Sheriff’s Department’s bill for offering medical staff and care for inmates in the county’s two jails.

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is recruiting federal air marshals in North Carolina.