Author: Scott D. Yost

This week, a new poll from High Point University found out something that’s not likely to surprise anyone. Namely, people aren’t happy with things and aren’t big fans of current political leadership…

If you own a company that does that kind of work and you wish to apply, bids will be taken by the Purchasing Department at 201 S. Greene St. until 2 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 20…

The Piedmont Triad Airport Authority held its September meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 27 and heard some mixed results regarding airport passenger traffic at Piedmont Triad International Airport (PTIA)…

Earlier this month, Sedalia Mayor Howard Morgan spoke before the Board of Commissioners in a work session and, unlike just about every other town or group who made a request that day, the board didn’t vote to hand over any money to Sedalia.

Sedalia, just like the other small towns in the county, will likely end up with some of the $104 million the county has been giving away. However Chairman of the Board of Commissioners Skip Alston said after the work session that he and other commissioners didn’t feel the town’s plans for the money were well developed enough at this point.

The Guilford County Health and Human Services Advisory Committee will meet at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 28 and, when they do, there will be plenty to talk about.

The High Point Public Library, High Point X Design and Sherwin-Williams are joining forces to host a community-wide art project at the High Point Farmers Market that will put some furniture scraps and related items to new use. The event will take place on Saturday, Oct. 1, from 9 a.m. until noon at the High Point Farmers Market,  which is held at the High Point Public Library at 901 N. Main St. and runs each Saturday from mid-April through October from 8:30 a.m. until 1 p.m.

Hounds Town USA – a  national doggie daycare and boarding franchise – is celebrating the opening of a new location at 123 S. Walnut Circle in Greensboro with a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Wednesday, Sept. 28.

Anyone who hasn’t been out to a Guilford County park since before the pandemic will likely notice a world of difference between then and now if they do venture out there.

Piedmont Triad International Airport (PTIA) Executive Director Kevin Baker said that PTIA has plans to extend a runway as well. However, he added, it’s a very involved project that will be a long time coming.

On Thursday, Sept. 22, the Greensboro Chamber of Commerce announced its congratulations for the eight minority business owners that graduated from the Scale to Excel program.

It’s that time of year again – grape picking time or “The Big Pick,” as it has been named by county officials. This year, the event will take place on two Saturdays – September 24 and October 1, from 9 a.m. to noon. Everyone is invited. However, minors have to be accompanied by an adult, and registration is required prior to the event.

The county is transferring security duties for the Guilford County Behavioral Health Center at 931 Third St. in Greensboro from the Guilford County Sheriff’s Department to the Guilford County Security Department.

The White House staff in Washington must have something of a crush on Chairman of the Guilford County Board of Commissioners Skip Alston.  For the second time this month, Alston is heading to Washington, DC, for an event at the White House. 

The politics of former Republican Guilford County Commissioner Alan Branson and current Democratic Commissioner Kay Cashion are as different as night and day. However, as the two both vie for the only at-large seat on the Board of Commissioners, they still get along swimmingly.

the High Point Theater is hosting a global film festival. The 25th annual Manhattan Short Film Festival will be held on Thursday, Sept. 22 and Friday, Sept. 23. 

Guilford County government is planning to assemble a major task force of county, city, and state officials to finally come up with a wholistic, coordinated solution meant to help alleviate the persistent problem of homelessness in the county.  

Repair your screen windows and empty your birdbath frequently – the number of cases of the West Nile Virus in North Carolina is double the usual number. That’s the message that state health officials put out on Monday, Sept.19.

At the Board of Commissioners Thursday, Sept. 15 meeting, a large number of appointments were announced that demonstrate the board is taking part more and more in county matters at the national level.

Before the start of a Tuesday, Sept. 13 meeting of the Summerfield Town Council,  Teresa Perryman – who’s a former Town Council member but is still active in the town’s affairs – placed a small voice recorder on the table used by the Town Council members so she could get a high-quality recording of the proceedings. 

Eventually, Guilford County will run out of American Rescue Plan (ARP) money. However, at an afternoon work session on Thursday, Sept. 15, the Guilford County Board of Commissioners was still giving that ARP money out at a wicked pace with votes to fund requested projects such as workforce readiness initiatives, youth wellness programs, support for the homeless and arts initiatives.

This summer, Guilford County got some very unwelcome air quality test results from the Guilford County jail in downtown Greensboro.  Those tests showed the presence of mold in the jail – and other tests found the same problem in the basement of the county’s building at 201 S. Greene St. in Greensboro. The county has been dealing with the problem and, at the Thursday, Sept. 15 meeting of the Guilford County Board of Commissioners, the board voted to approve about a cool million that the county needs to address the problem.

Here’s one more welcome sign that life in Greensboro is getting back to normal after the pandemic that sent things into a tailspin for over two years. A local favorite weekly entertainment event –Thursday night Jazz at the O. Henry Hotel – is back after its long pandemic hiatus. Performances each Thursday will run from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. in the Social Lobby of the hotel.

If you live in the High Point area and notice that the water level in Piedmont Lake is not what it should be this fall, well it’s not the result of global warming or alien activity, but instead, it’s something that the City of High Point is doing on purpose.

On Tuesday, Sept. 13, the first-ever Carolina Core Real Estate Summit was held at the Wicker Civic and Conference Center in Sanford, North Carolina. The Economic Development Summit included a wide variety of people involved with development.

In March, the Guilford County Planning Department voted unanimously to approve the closure of Groundhog Trace running southeast from Raccoon Run to the ending cul-de-sac of Groundhog Trace.  But it’s the Guilford County Board of Commissioners who’ll get the final word after holding a public hearing due to the appeal from those who don’t want the road closed. The board will hear the matter at its Thursday, Sept.15 meeting.

Usually when people turn 100, they’re no longer active in their profession, however, Curtis Kennedy is anything but usual.   He recently celebrated his 100th birthday, but Kennedy – an original fire commissioner for the McLeansville Fire Department when it began in 1951 – still plays an active role as a fire commissioner for the department. On Thursday, Sept. 15, the Guilford County Board of Commissioners plans to honor the energetic centenarian. 

Chairman of the Guilford County Board of Commissioners Skip Alston has received a very special invitation.  Joe Biden, the president of the United States, has asked Alston to come to Washington, DC, for the event celebrating the passage and the signing of the Inflation Reduction Act.

On Tuesday, Sept. 13 and Wednesday, Sept. 14, Guilford County government – along with the Safe Alliance of Mecklenburg County – is hosting a large conference meant to help workers who are attempting “to build or provide collaborative support for survivors of interpersonal abuse.”

the Guilford County Board of Commissioners has scheduled a work session for Thursday, Sept. 15 to hear more funding requests for American Rescue Plan (ARP) money – and perhaps to vote to hand more of it out.

Usually, Guilford County Board of Commissioners’ meetings don’t have a star, however, at the last meeting of the board, on Thursday, Sept. 1, the star was a 16-year-old student named Riley Robinson. 

The Sensory Garden at the High Point Public Library – a planned 7,000-square-foot, self-contained garden area that allows visitors to enjoy a wide range of sensory experiences – has reached its fundraising goal thanks to The Lenny Peters Foundation, which has made a $90,000 gift to the project.

The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (NCDHHS) is warning families and caregivers not to purchase Mother’s Touch Formula or give it to infants under their care.   According to the US Food and Drug Administration, Mother’s Touch Formula has at least two main problems.  It doesn’t meet the nutrient needs for infant formula and it hasn’t been sufficiently tested for harmful bacteria.

On Saturday, Sept. 10, the Guilford County Sheriff’s Department will host a “9/11 Ride to Remember” to honor the first responders, veterans, military and civilian heroes who lost their lives in the 9/11 attacks as well as in the wars that followed.  The motorcycle ride will also raise money for a good cause. All proceeds will be donated to the Stephen Siller Tunnel to Towers Foundation.

Truist Point Stadium opened in 2019 to be home to the High Point Rockers baseball team, but it was always billed by city leaders as a “multi-use” stadium.   On Wednesday, Sept. 7, it certainly lived up to that description. City officials announced plans to bring a professional men’s soccer team to the stadium and upgrade the facility.

WFMY News 2 Weatherman Eric Chilton has a lot of talents other than knowing when it’s going to rain and when the sun is going to shine – and now his station is putting more of his talent to use. This week, Chilton became the station’s new 5 p.m. news anchor along with his co-anchor and good friend Lauren Coleman.

According to animal lovers who’ve been helping the county’s strays for years, the problem of abandoned and stray animals is as bad as it’s ever been in Guilford County and is reaching truly alarming proportions.  The animals – often from owners who simply abandon them – are creating a tremendous strain on the county’s animal shelter, local animal rescues, and the people who work to collect and help the animals.

A lot of houses in Guilford County – and many other parts of the country – are being gobbled up by corporations that then rent those houses out. The Guilford County Tax Department is conducting an investigation to find out exactly what’s happening and to determine the extent of the practice in the county.

An 85-year-old woman who lives alone in Old Irving Park was surprised recently when, on her appointed yard waste pickup day – Monday – the City of Greensboro yard waste collection crew had not picked up the eight bags of leaves that lined the front of her yard. 

Guilford County officials waited until the end of the Board of Commissioners’ Thursday, Sept. 1 meeting to officially introduce brand new Guilford County Attorney Andrea Leslie-Fite to the public. 

At the Thursday, Sept. 1 meeting of the Guilford County Board of Commissioners, there was a tremendous amount of security that made some in the room wonder if there had been some sort of threat made prior to the meeting. There were security guards who checked people at the security point at the plaza entrance of the old Guilford County Court House, more on the second floor, and, in the meeting room, seven security officers lining the sides and back. 

Chairman of the Guilford County Board of Commissioners Skip Alston has done a lot of things in his career, but one thing he’s never done before this week is witness a drug bust.  Alston was riding along for an evening with Guilford County Sheriff Danny Rogers to get to know more about how the sheriff and the Sheriff’s Department operate.

At a special called meeting of the Sedalia Town Council on Wednesday, Aug. 31, held to discuss using federal American Rescue Plan (ARP) money for a water and sewer system for the town, a standing-room-only crowd had other ideas.

The State of North Carolina received just over $15 million in federal American Rescue Plan (ARP) money to help social services departments across North Carolina administer Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits.  The state, through the NC Department of Health and Human Services, is allocating $638,000.39 to Guilford County.

At the Thursday, Sept. 1 Guilford County Board of Commissioners meeting, the board is expected to approve the purchase of five heavy duty SUVs and trucks, which will run county taxpayers $242,057. The will be used as “quick response vehicles.”

Wednesday, Aug. 31 is the last day to pay your Guilford County property taxes and receive the county’s discount of one-half of one percent on your county tax bill.   

On Saturday, Sept. 24 at 10 a.m. at the Teaching Garden site at the High Point Public Library at 901 N. Main St. the library will host a class called “Fall Vegetable Gardens: Extending Your Harvest.”

The City of High Point’s “Marketing and Branding Taskforce,” along with marketing agency CivicBrand, will be hosting pop-up events at eight locations throughout the city from Wednesday, Aug. 31 through Saturday, Sept. 3.

All the elected leaders in Guilford County want to see the county’s problem of homelessness addressed, however, in the past, Guilford County, the City of Greensboro, and the City of High Point have often been on very different pages when it came to solutions.