Author: Scott D. Yost

One of the least controversial things the Guilford County Board of Commissioners does is honor historic moments, and, at the board’s Thursday, Jan. 16 meeting, the commissioners voted to pass a resolution commemorating the success of the national women’s suffrage movement as well as the formation of the NC League of Women’s Voters – both of which took place 100 years ago. In that same action, the board approved a historic marker and monument in honor of the League of Women Voters.

If you’re a John Coltrane fan with views on what should happen to the jazz superstar’s childhood home in High Point, now’s your chance to express your opinions.

Greensboro City Councilmember Justin Outling, a partner with Brooks Pierce law firm, has – along with 39 other local young black leaders –been named one of the “40 Under 40 Most Influential African Americans In The Piedmont” by Black Business Ink magazine, which researched young black leaders in Guilford County and Forsyth County to pick the winners.

Before you go out and spend anywhere from $750 million to $1 billion, probably the first thing you do is figure out how to get your hands on that kind of money.

The new Guilford County animal shelter just took a big step forward and it’s set to take another big one in February.On Thursday, Jan. 16, the bidding closed for the contract to build the new roughly $15-million facility on Guilford College Road – and Guilford County Manager Marty Lawing informed the county’s Board of Commissioners that evening that the county got a whopping seven bids to do the work.

The International Civil Rights Center and Museum in downtown Greensboro has a very big night planned for its annual awards and fundraising gala on Saturday, Feb. 1.

If you buy a new car in North Carolina, you have the benefit of the state’s “Lemon Law,” which can force a dealer to replace your vehicle or give you a refund if it has repeated mechanical problems.Unfortunately for fire departments, local governments and emergency services departments, the law doesn’t cover vehicles such as fire trucks and ambulances. However, NC State Rep. Jon Hardister said this week that he’s now working on legislation that will extend Lemon Law protection to emergency vehicles.

Talk may be cheap – but what the Guilford County Board of Commissioners and Guilford County Schools officials have been talking about at great length this month certainly isn’t cheap – in fact, it could have a price tag of over a billion dollars.

Guilford County government has gotten some nice brand new doors on the Old Guilford County Court House in downtown Greensboro – and, while those three shiny new front doors look inviting, they most certainly are not.

On Thursday, Jan. 16, Syngenta AG – a global agricultural company with a large presence in Greensboro and Guilford County – came before the Guilford County Board of Commissioners and asked for nearly $2 million in incentives to remain in the area and make a capital investment of at least $68 million either in its current facility made up of 17 buildings on 70 acres or in a new facility.

A new report on airline fares found some good news for Piedmont Triad International Airport (PTIA).Namely, it calls into question the belief some hold that it’s very expensive to fly in and out of that airport.

If you haven’t learned the lesson by now, here’s another crystal clear example of the modern rule that what you post on social media can affect your employment.A gender-discrimination and Title IX trainer contracted by Guilford County Schools to train principals and assistant principals has been terminated after school officials and others read her highly controversial tweet and Facebook post.

The Guilford County Economic Development Alliance (GCEDA), which since its inception five years ago has met monthly at the Cameron Campus of Guilford County Technical Community College (GTCC) in Colfax, is moving its meetings to a shiny new high-profile home: GTCC’s Advanced Center for Manufacturing across Guilford College Road from to the GTCC Jamestown Campus.

It seems pretty crazy to put a little kid behind the wheel of a giant truck and let him or her drive it without any training.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention –better known simply as “the CDC” – recently released its latest “Sexually Transmitted Disease Surveillance Report,” which included new data on the number of reported sexually transmitted diseases – better known as STD’s – for counties and metro areas across the country, and, according to a research and medical-testing firm analyzing the results, Greensboro comes in 25th on a list of 100 areas with the highest STD rates.

On Wednesday, Jan 15, ArtsGreensboro announced that it had hired, not one, not two – but three new key staff members to help advance that organization’s cause of promoting art in the area.

The Kellin Foundation, the Greensboro Police Department and a host of other area agencies plan to get together this week to “formally recommit” to being partners in the Greensboro Child Response Initiative (CRI) – a community program that works to help children and families that are exposed to violence.

Piedmont Triad International Airport (PTIA) is slowly but surely adding new routes and new services, and, on Tuesday, Jan. 14, Allegiant Air announced new non-stop service from Greensboro to Nashville with some one-way fares running as low as $44.

On Tuesday, Jan. 14, NC Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger held a morning press conference and announced that there was no hope for the State of North Carolina to adopt a budget this session and Berger was right.

This week, the NC Digital Library – a library consortium consisting of the Greensboro Public Library and 22 other libraries in the state – announced a record setting 2 million e-book and audio-book checkouts in 2019, making it the 10th largest used public library consortium in the world in terms of total digital circulation.

It turns out that there’s a lot of interest in the Guilford County-owned building at 232 N. Edgeworth St.The property has just landed a new upset bid from one of Greensboro’s best-known success stories – Louis DeJoy, the retired CEO of XPO Logistics Inc. who now runs the equity and real estate firm LDJ Global Strategies.

Former Guilford County Board of Elections member and current Summerfield Scoop Facebook page proprietor Don Wendelken was shocked recently when he made a public records request to the Town of Summerfield and was notified by town officials that it would cost him $487 to get that information.On Friday, Nov. 15, 2019, Wendelken requested an electronic copy – not paper copies – of emails between town staff and Town Council for October and the first part of November, and, on Thursday, Jan. 2, 2020, the town sent him the following response: “The cost estimate for responding to your PRR [public records request] dated 11/15/19 is $487.89. Please advise as to whether you wish to proceed.”

Former Guilford County Tax Director Francis Kinlaw used to get upset whenever the Rhino Times wrote that he was the “nicest person in county government” because he wanted people to believe that the tax director was very mean so that citizens would be more likely to pay their taxes.While current tax officials may also want to maintain a stern “no love” image, a move expected this month by Guilford County government will mean that the department would start cutting a break to those who owe less than $5 in property taxes.

There may not be any such thing as a free lunch (actually, there is) – but in North Carolina in January there is such a thing as a free radon detection kit.

Park picnic shelters aren’t usually lightning rods for controversy, however, a new picnic shelter in Summerfield has been the focus of major disagreement – with some in that town saying the structure is an unnecessarily expensive Tajma-shelter, while others argue that the shelter is exactly what the town needed.

Sometimes Piedmont Triad International Airport (PTIA) and other airports around the country will point to a major promotion – such as lower fares to certain destinations – that really entice people to fly in and out of that airport. 

Nobody likes it when their phone service goes down but, when you’re an emergency response center and your 911 service is down, that’s a major, major problem that could even be a matter of life or death. 

The Guilford County Sheriff’s Department has released a position paper – a “joint Legislative Position Paper” that’s been adopted by the NC Sheriffs’ Association, the NC Conference of District Attorneys, the NC Association of Chiefs of Police and the NC State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) – urging the NC General Assembly to ban smokable hemp during the legislative session that begins next week.

January is the first month of the year but it’s also National Mentoring Month – a fact that may be less well known.Still, in honor of that designation, the City of Greensboro and the United Way of Greater Greensboro are introducing a new mentoring program aimed at area men and boys called “100 Males Mentoring”.  

The City of High Point will host a groundbreaking ceremony for the new High Point Police Department Headquarters and Communications Center on Friday, Jan. 10, at 10 a.m. at 1730 Westchester Dr.

Years ago, a library used to be a place where you could find a book to read, but these days the library is much more than that.In fact, on Valentine’s Day this year, the High Point library’s mixer for older adults could be the place some area residents meet the love of their life.

There have been a lot of exciting and positive economic development announcements out of High Point in recent years, and, on Tuesday. Jan. 7, there was another one to add to the list.

If you drive through downtown High Point, be prepared to find yourself hitting some blocked off roads for quite a while since the City of High Point is using the first months of 2020 to conduct extensive and necessary utility work that will close some key roads for months.

Inflation may have remained under control pretty well in 2019, however, the inmate population at both the Guilford County jail in Greensboro and the jail in High Point increased in 2019 compared with the jail populations in 2018.

The Guilford County Board of Commissioners is being asked to approve a special type of bond that would be used to help fund Revolution Academy – a new charter school that in 2019 got state approval to open and is now seeking the approval of the commissioners for $19 million in “Educational Facilities Revenue Bonds.”

Guilford County has been handing out a lot of monetary incentives to businesses in recent years and now a new $1.9 million incentives package has started down the road for approval.

After a decade and a half of dedicated service, Guilford County Health Director Merle Green is calling it quits and riding off into the sunset.   Well, actually, that’s what cowboys do when they retire, but Green will be doing whatever retired health directors do when they wrap up their long county careers.

The first major holiday of the year is fast approaching – Martin Luther King Jr. Day, on Monday, Jan. 20 – and Greensboro is getting ready.

Since the turn of the century, there’s been a whole lot of development in Guilford County, but there’s also been another effort going on largely under the radar – an effort by state and county officials along with landowners to preserve county farmland through the establishment of what’s known as “Voluntary Agricultural Districts.”

As the song says, “Baby, it’s cold outside,” but Greensboro Downtown Parks Inc. is attempting to warm up the prospects downtown with six programs for the community this season.

For the most part, employees of Guilford County government are satisfied with their job security and health insurance plans, but they, surprise, surprise, think their salaries should be higher. That’s according to a recent poll the county conducted of its employees.

The Summerfield Town Council is holding its annual retreat on Saturday, Feb. 1 and new Summerfield Mayor BJ Barnes said he wants the council to address some longstanding controversial issues head on – including the rules regarding development, the need for a limited water system for firefighting and the need for a new town meeting space.

Sure, area college students could spend spring break 2020 partying, however, for the third year in a row, the United Way of Greater Greensboro is asking them to do something more productive and rewarding with their time off from school.The organization is seeking 12 area students to participate in what it calls “Alternative Spring Break” – a volunteer program that runs from Monday, March 2 to Friday, March 6 this year. The students will have to get up earlier than they normally would on spring break. The United Way will be requesting their time from 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. each day.

The International Civil Rights Center and Museum is planning a big 2020 Gala since it’s the 60th Anniversary of the Sit-Ins in downtown Greensboro, and one way it’s hoping to make this year’s event a very special one is by bringing in former President Barack Obama.

If your New Year’s resolution is to enjoy more art and music in 2020, the GreenHill Center for North Carolina Art has you covered.The gallery has several shows and events planned in early 2020 and one is coming up this weekend. On Friday, Jan. 3, the downtown Greensboro gallery will feature the music of Hokum Pokum from 6 to 8:30 p.m. The band, as the name sort of indicates, celebrates the great string and jug band traditions of the 1920’s and 1930’s. According to promotional material from GreenHill about the event, Hokum Pokum “engages the crowd in a lively show with washboard rhythms providing the backdrop for spirited guitar, mandolin, and banjo, combined with vocals,” and the gallery promises the show will be “A little bit of history and a lot of fun!”

In 2019, the K-9 officers in the Guilford County Sheriff’s Department were – literally – working like dogs.Because, you know, K-9s are dogs.

NC A&T has hired Eric Muth, Ph.D., away from Clemson in a move expected to help the university secure more patents and grant money in the future.

The holiday season is a time of giving, and this year one area institution – High Point University (HPU) – gave back to the community in ways that touched a large number of lives.

On Monday, Dec. 30, Guilford County let it officially be known that it still has a county-owned downtown Greensboro building up for sale – if you have the money and the desire.