Author: Scott D. Yost

You probably just threw away the last tree you bought, but each year at this time the Guilford County’s Soil and Water Conservation District Board sells trees that are meant to be kept for a very long time.  This month, the board will be holding its annual Tree Seedling Sale, where it offers deals on tiny trees and many other plants, flowers and related items. The sale starts on Monday, Jan. 23 and runs through Friday, Jan. 27 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day

Guilford County government is interested in enhancing and growing the Haw River trail and, to that end, the county is about to enter into a new agreement with other local governments that are also home to the trail and want to see its benefits maximized in the coming decade.

one thing that could help in that regard is enrolling in TSA’s PreCheck program – something Piedmont Triad International Airport (PTIA) is making as easy as possible for you next week. The airport is holding special PreCheck enrollment sessions from Monday, Jan. 9 through Friday, Jan. 13 for those interested.

The Guilford County Board of Commissioners has scheduled a three-hour work session for Thursday, Jan. 5, at 2:30 p.m. in the McAdoo Conference Room on the third floor of the Truist Building at 201 W. Market St. in downtown Greensboro.

Perhaps there’s nowhere in government services where clear communication is more important than on law enforcement SWAT teams.

Thanks to a $24,500 grant from the Governor’s Crime Commission, the Guilford County Sheriff’s Department is buying four high-tech radios for its SWAT team vehicles.

A $10,000 grant awarded to Guilford County will be put to use in an interesting new program meant to reduce the number of pet surrenders to the Guilford County animal shelter.

In the last three years, Guilford County voters have provided Guilford County Schools access to $2 billion to spend on school construction and repair, and the Guilford County commissioners want to make sure they know a whole lot about how that money is being spent.  To that end, the first official meeting of the Board of Commissioners in the New Year will be a meeting with the Guilford County Board of Education Joint Capital and Facilities Committee at 4 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 4.

Seven years ago, Sarah Carter’s two children were taken from her by the Guilford County Department of Social Services and the Guilford County court system. Carter has never given up her fight, and, just before Christmas this year, she returned to speak to the Guilford County Board of Commissioners – still trying to see her children.

In a neighborhood close to Piedmont Triad International Airport, residents who use well water have been concerned that their wells are contaminated by chemicals called “PFAS.” Those are found in, among other things, a firefighting foam that the airport uses regularly.

You no doubt just spent a lot of money buying Christmas presents and celebrating the season, but Guilford County Tax Director Ben Chavis and his army of tax collectors hope you saved enough to pay your property tax bill before the deadline – which falls on the fast-approaching Thursday, Jan. 5, 2023.

The Guilford County Planning Board will hold its first regular meeting of 2023 on Wednesday, Jan. 11 at 6 p.m. at the NC Cooperative Extension-Agricultural Center at 3309 Burlington Road in Greensboro.

When the Guilford County Board of Commissioners was handing out $104 million in American Rescue Plan (ARP) money to local towns, cities, non-profits, water projects and you name its, one thing that failed to get noticed is that the county also set aside $1 million from that pot of money to help fund a new initiative of its own in 2023 – a Guilford County Transportation Task Force. 

Guilford County voters approved a $1.7 billion school bond referendum last May and another $300 million school bond referendum in 2020 for money that will go to capital projects for Guilford County Schools – and now Guilford Technical Community College wants a piece of the action as well. 

 On Christmas Day, 21-year-old Tatyana Childress was reported as missing by her mother and, on Monday, Dec. 26, she was found dead at 2151 Huffine Mill Road in McLeansville. In that case, no foul play is suspected. However, the department notes that the investigation is still active and officers encourage anyone with information regarding Childress’ death to call Guilford County Sheriff’s Department Detective Duncan at 336-641-5968 or call Crime Stoppers at 336-373-1000.

Guilford County residents learned over Christmas weekend 2022 that it doesn’t take ice or snow falling from the sky to completely disrupt everything – extreme cold mixed with gale-force winds is enough to wreak havoc on a community. 

This Christmastime, the Tax Department put out a notice to all Guilford County property owners that the listing for 2023 Guilford County property taxes will begin on Tuesday, Jan 3.

No longer will walkers who want to get across Koonce City Lake have to swim across.  On Wednesday, Dec. 21, the City of High Point presented an early Christmas present to the people who enjoy using the park – the city finally opened the much-anticipated greenway bridge across Koonce City Lake.

Chairman of the Board of Commissioners Skip Alston opened the questions up: “We’ve been doing this for about 10 years now, with Sandhills, working with this collaboration and giving an average of right at $9.6 million [a year], What are the outcomes?  What are we getting for that money for Guilford County citizens? “How are Guilford County citizens benefiting from that?

The Piedmont Triad Airport Authority – the board of seven that runs Piedmont Triad International Airport (PTIA) – doesn’t have the complete picture as to how the airport fared in terms of passenger traffic in 2022 because there’s still a month of data the board hasn’t seen yet.  However, even without knowing what December will bring, the airport officials found out this week that PTIA isn’t finishing the year on a strong note in terms of flyers.

Anyone who knows High Point University President Dr. Nido Qubein knows that, whenever he does something, he goes all in. He goes big.  That’s the case even when it comes to Christmas because right now the university has the state’s tallest Christmas tree as well as an abundance of other Christmas decorations that are drawing people to the campus from all around.

Perhaps nothing provides better evidence of Guilford County government’s current immense...

Josh Myers and Anna Gerringer Amoriello were reelected to the little-known, five-member, Guilford County Soil and Water Conservation District Board – the only nonpartisan race on Guilford County’s ballot in 2022. 

The High Point Public Library will be closed to the public on Thursday, Dec. 22, due to “several unexpected plumbing and electrical” problems that need to be repaired.

At the end of each year, the Guilford County Board of Commissioners votes on the meeting calendar for the coming year and now the board has approved the schedule for 2023. 

In the current century – the 21st one, that is – there are two things that Guilford County government has tried incredibly hard to do but has never been able to: (1) get a kiddie train running at Northeast Park, and (2) bring some rationality to the method by which the county hands out taxpayer money to non-profits and economic development groups each June when the county adopts its annual budget.

Chairman of the Guilford County Board of Commissioners Skip Alston has some big plans for the county in the New Year. Alston recently laid out his vision for the coming 12 months when he said that the county has allocated over $100 million in federal relief funds and seen a $1.7 billion school bond passed – and much of the work now, he added, is to make sure all those projects get completed.

For centuries people have been singing about London Bridge coming down – however, there are likely to be no songs written about the old county building that’s set to come down in early 2023: the Old Guilford County Jail in downtown Greensboro. 

One of the City of High Point’s most visible director positions has been filled just in time for the new hire to hit the ground running at the start of 2023. Thanena Wilson has accepted the position with the city as the Community Development and Housing Department director and she’s starting her new role immediately.

On Thursday, Dec. 15, the Board of Commissioners came out of a closed session and voted to give Guilford County Tax Director Ben Chavis a salary increase of 11 percent.

The North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission has brought an early Christmas present to Guilford County anglers. The commission just freshly stocked a pond at Gibson Park.

an acceptable Minority/Women Business Enterprise (MWBE) program – but, for most of that time, the results haven’t been good. 

Christmas is a good time for inspirational stories, and one well-known economic development leader...

Guilford County Manager Mike Halford is transferring $4,500 from the Manager’s Contingency Fund  to Animal Services’ animal shelter operations.

If you thought sneaking your iPhone into a Guilford County courthouse was hard before – well, it’s likely to get even harder starting at the first of the year.  The Guilford County Security Department is upgrading the small parcel X-ray equipment at security checkpoints at the county’s courthouses in Greensboro and High Point.

There are a lot of people who keep Piedmont Triad International Airport (PTIA) running smoothly during the Christmas rush – but one group of individuals in particular acts as the glue that holds operations together each year at Christmas when the airport might otherwise be overwhelmed with passengers.

It’s been nearly half a year since the mysterious death of Rev. Anthony T. Spearman, and there’s still complete silence from law enforcement – and everyone else – regarding the circumstances and cause of death.

Anyone who’s watched the news the last few days has seen very disturbing images from the US-Mexico border demonstrating that the illegal immigration problem is getting even more out of control.

The commissioners have scheduled a work session for Thursday, Dec. 15, at 2:30 p.m. in the Carolyn Coleman Conference Room on the first floor of the Old Guilford County Court House in downtown Greensboro. 

The Guilford County Sheriff’s Department is doing what it can to bring some holiday cheer to county residents now that Christmas is just around the corner.  On Saturday, Dec. 10, for instance, department staff was in downtown High Point giving away a lot of food to those who need it.

The year 2022 has been one when the Guilford County Register of Deeds office went through a lot of changes – for the most part very good ones.

Guilford County has been trying to unify its Health Department and Department of Social Services for nearly a decade. Now it’s hiring a consultant to help accomplish that task as well as advise the county on strategic planning for behavioral health services and opioid crisis response.

The Guilford County Sheriff’s Department employees always get excited this time of year because it’s time for the Fill the Bus” Kick Off. This year, the effort will begin on Monday, Dec. 12 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and run those same hours through Wednesday, Dec. 14.

This winter and spring,130 public schools across North Carolina will receive mental and behavioral health training and consultation through the North Carolina Psychiatry Access Line.

There’s no question that residents of Guilford County and those across the North Carolina are eating out more now that pandemic fears have subsided.  In fact, a new study just released found that, in the last three months, North Carolinians have been eating out 7 percent more than in the previous quarter.

Guilford County Sheriff’s Department Communications Specialist Bria Evans was arrested by Greensboro police officers in the very early morning hours of Friday, Dec. 2 and charged with driving while impaired.

Are you part of a low-income family living with an older adult or someone with physical challenges? Then the state’s Low Income Energy Assistance Program is an option to explore.  Households with adults and people with disabilities can now apply for the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (NCDHHS) “Low Income Energy Assistance Program.”

At a Monday, Dec. 5 meeting when newly elected and reelected commissioners were sworn in, Chairman of the Board of Commissioners Skip Alston – who’ll hold that title for another 12 months – summed up the extremely eventful year of 2022 when it came to the board’s actions.

For a fiscally conservative Republican Guilford County commissioner on a board full of spend-happy Democrats, Commissioner Justin Conrad sure did get a whole lot of love this week.  From the comments the Democrats made about Conrad at the Monday, Dec. 5 meeting when Conrad stepped down as a commissioner, you would have thought they had been in agreement with Conrad on all matters for years.

Usually, when the Guilford County Board of Commissioners swears in new commissioners after an...

It hasn’t always been this way. Not by a long shot. In fact, through much of this century, the...