Author: Scott D. Yost

In recent years, there’s been a lot of talk about a need to make sure that dead people don’t vote – and, apparently, the North Carolina Republican Party is attempting to investigate very deeply into that concern in the upcoming election. 

The Town of Stokesdale has had its own water system for years, and now, thanks to a number of new grants, it has several million dollars to spend on that system.

A new study by Smartasset.com found that Piedmont Triad International Airport (PTIA) ranks 15th in the nation when it comes to the largest ticket price increases.  However, the study’s methodology is disputed by PTIA officials.

City Councilmember Tammi Thurm announced that the city was going to try cooperation, rather than regulation, in dealing with abandoned shopping carts at the Tuesday, Nov. 1 City Council meeting.

On Wednesday, Nov. 2, the Guilford County Sheriff’s Department reported that there had been a shooting in Guilford County the night before. 

Guilford County Sheriff Danny Rogers was a big hit with school alumni and other parade-goers at the NC A&T State University Homecoming when he danced to a rap song along the homecoming parade route accompanied by a Sheriff’s Department vehicle. 

The Greensboro Chamber of Commerce and other area groups were treated to an inspirational talk by Simon T. Bailey – one of the world’s best-known motivational speakers.

Each year about this time, the High Point Economic Development Corporation takes an afternoon to look back and toast the economic development successes the city has enjoyed in the previous 12 months – and also to look forward to find ways to do even better in the future. 

The Guilford County Sheriff’s Department has created a new class that’s being touted as an effort to help keep people safe.

The Guilford County Board of Commissioners has scheduled a work session for Thursday, Nov. 3, to receive updates from the county’s mayors and to take care of quite a bit of other county business. 

It’s been a relatively dry late October in Guilford County. However, of course, on Halloween night – a night when the weather really does matter – forecasts are calling for a good chance of rain.  That’s something that could dampen spirits on Halloween and may even mean that some kids stay home and candyless.

One of the most liked former Guilford County Commissioners – former District 8 Commissioner Ray Trapp – got some very good news this week after undergoing cancer surgery four months ago.  Trapp stepped down as a Guilford County commissioner in 2017 to take a job at North Carolina A&T State University to act as a liaison between the school and state and local governments.  In 2021, he took a new job with the Research Triangle Foundation – the steward organization of Research Triangle Park that promotes economic development in the park.

The High Point Farmers Market will finish up its regular 2022 season on Saturday, Oct. 29, when the final full-scale market will run from 8:30 a.m. until 1 p.m. at the High Point Public Library.

Everyone knows that fall is the best time to do spring cleaning and, when it comes to that hard to dispose of waste, the City of High Point is offering a helping hand to its residents.  The city will hold its next Household Hazardous Waste disposal event on Saturday, Nov. 5 at High Point’s Household Hazardous Waste Facility at 1401 E. Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive.

This year, one of the world’s largest home furnishings trade shows, which is held each fall and spring – was a chance for High Point University (HPU) students to get some real-world experience in the industry as they worked alongside furniture and home furnishings company leaders at the show from Saturday, Oct. 22 to Wednesday, Oct. 26.

This week the North Carolina Department of Agriculture And Consumer Services announced that the department is now taking applications for funding assistance from the state’s Farmland Preservation Trust Fund for preservation projects. The deadline for applications is Monday, Dec. 19.

On Tuesday, Oct. 25, the Piedmont Triad Airport Authority. – the board that oversees the airport’s activities – met and released the latest batch of statistics that show the same story the monthly stats have shown for a long time. Passenger traffic at the airport is recovering gradually from the pandemic lows, but it’s still not back to pre-pandemic 2019 levels.

Now that the COVID-19 pandemic is subsiding, state and local health officials are no longer devoting almost all of their resources to the coronavirus.

Fast-rising interest rates are good for treasury bond buyers but they’re absolutely terrible for counties whose voters just approved $1.7 billion school bond referendums. 

On Saturday, Nov. 5, the Rotary Clubs of Greensboro organization is putting on “Pigstock 2022,” which is described as “A Day of BBQ and Bluegrass.” 

On Thursday morning, Oct. 20, an inmate being held in the large Guilford County jail in downtown Greensboro died at the hospital after being found unresponsive in his cell.  

On Friday, Oct. 21, the Guilford County Sheriff’s Department put out a press release stating that Stuart Lee Carter was a missing person who was last seen on Tuesday, Sept. 20 of this year.

On Thursday, Oct.20, the board proclaimed Sunday, Oct. 16 to Saturday, Oct. 22 as America’s Safe Schools Week in Guilford County.

The North Carolina Association of County Commissioners (NCACC) brings the state’s counties together to conduct widespread initiatives that are mutually beneficial.

After a national search, Triad Stage – the regional theater located in downtown Greensboro that uses local and national actors – has just named New York producer Kathleen Holland as executive director.

with freezing temperatures hitting Guilford County earlier than usual this year, the Guilford County Animal Services Department is trying to warn all pet owners in the county to protect pets from those icy cold temperatures.

Early voting is one of the conveniences of modern life and you might want to take advantage of it because the Guilford County Board of Elections is expecting to see a whole lot of voter turnout. Guilford County Elections Director Charlie Collicutt said this week that – due to the large number of federal, state, and local races on the ballot in the 2022 general election – he expects voter turnout to be “robust.”

High Point has been attracting a lot of new business in recent years and has seen a good deal of business expansion as well. Wednesday, Oct. 19, marks another big milestone. The first tenant at the High Point North Industrial Center is breaking ground. On Wednesday afternoon, Ecolab put the first shovel tip into the new 550-acre industrial park to start the place off with a bang – a facility with 1,050,500 square feet of industrial space.

At a cost of $1.12 million, you might think a “space study” is a study of outer space using high-tech telescopes. However, it’s actually a comprehensive study of the buildings and other real estate Guilford County government owns.

Guilford County officials are hoping that Greensboro and other parts of the county will be turning green in November. With Veterans Day coming up on Friday, Nov. 11, Guilford County government – and many other county governments across the country – plan to honor veterans, and county officials are encouraging residents to do the same.  Guilford County buildings will be illuminated green from Monday, Nov. 7 through Friday, Nov. 11 to participate in Operation Green Light, a new national collaborative initiative meant to honor veterans.

Guilford County government, the Guilford County Sheriff’s Department and many local community-based organizations have, in recent years, been putting a great deal of emphasis on helping those who go to jail get on the right path once they get out. A major part of that effort has been carried out by the Guilford County Sheriff’s Office Re-entry Council.

Not long ago, Guilford County officials were very close to quietly selling the old Monticello Community Center property for 100 grand. However, the county commissioners told staff at a meeting that they didn’t think word of the sale had been presented to the public widely enough. 

It’s been a long time coming, but Guilford County is just about ready to start spending the funds it’s receiving as part of a giant nationwide lawsuit against drug companies and other outlets which contributed to the major opioid epidemic that’s done so much damage locally and nationally. On Monday, Oct. 17, Guilford County announced that it will host an “Opioid Settlement Funds meeting” on Halloween – Monday, October 31.

This county’s not big enough for the two of them – that is, for Democratic Guilford County Sheriff Danny Rogers and Republican Phil Byrd, who’s trying very hard to take that job away from Rogers. 

There are a lot of local events being held to raise money, and raise awareness of breast cancer, and this week the High Point Public Library announced that it will host a walk for breast cancer at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 26 at the library. That will be followed by a breast cancer workshop at 11 a.m.

Just when you thought it was safe to go back to your college homecoming again, Guilford County Health Director Dr. Iulia Vann is reminding everyone that COVID-19 is still around.  Vann has sent out an “open letter” to local colleges and universities to remind them that COVID-19, while largely out of people’s minds, remains a threat.

Guilford County’s former Evans-Blount Clinic was established by Guilford County government and its partners in 2010 to provide low-cost medical care to residents in East Greensboro.  While the clinic is no longer offering those services, county health officials are trying to get the word out to the public that there are nearby options.

Three mobile units are now staffed by existing Guilford County Health Department employees whenever they venture out. However, based on the discussion at the Guilford County Board of Commissioners meeting last week, it now looks a lot like the county will fund the cost of extra dedicated health staff for the new mobile effort.

If you don’t feel like you’ve had enough COVID-19 vaccine shots already, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the State of North Carolina are recommending that you get another shot – a fifth one for those who’ve all the four previously recommended shots.

A lot of media attention has been given to the Friday, Oct. 7 fight between two – and at one point three – students at a Southern Guilford High School game, in part because the fight was caught on video and was quite intense. 

People who snapped up pets at animal shelters during the pandemic are going back to work and giving up those pets and that’s led to overcrowding at Guilford County’s animal shelter and at other shelters around the country.  Now Guilford County Animal Services is introducing a new program called “Stray to Foster” to help address the large number of strays and surrenders coming into the new facility officially known as the Guilford County Animal Resource Center. The new program is seeking animal lovers willing to foster stray and surrendered shelter pets for 72 hours.

In addition to building a brand new Sheriff’s Department administrative building in downtown Greensboro, Guilford County government is also sprucing up the department’s other facilities.  The county recently sent out a request for bids to fix up the parking lot in the department’s District 3 office in Jamestown, and, on Tuesday, Oct. 11, the county announced that it’s taking bids for roofing replacement services for the Sheriff’s Department’s “Shoot House.”

In order to help voters know who to vote for in the election – one that’s now just around the corner – a large group of community and education organizations have joined forces to host the virtual “4 Our Future” candidate forum series.

When Charlie Collicutt became the director of the Guilford County Board of Elections, there was no way he could know what he was getting into – namely, that he’d need to hold elections in the middle of a pandemic and also at a time when a large number of people wouldn’t trust the outcomes. But Collicutt, like his election staff, has been adjusting to the times, and Collicutt said the preparations for the November 2022 election are going well.

The Town of Summerfield has received an application to subdivide property within the town’s limits and has sent notice to residents in the area.  The request is to subdivide roughly 10 acres at and near 7600 Whitaker Drive in Summerfield into six lots.

Public health officials with the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (NCDHHS) stated recently that they’ve seen a decrease in flu vaccinations compared with those given in previous years and they’re urging North Carolinians who are six months of age and older to get their flu shot before Halloween – “before the end of October” as they put it. 

Allegations of “sexual exploitation of a minor” are always alarming, but they are even more so when made against law enforcement officers who’ve been sworn to protect and serve the people.  However, on Friday, Oct.  7, the Guilford County Sheriff’s Department announced that one of its deputies had been fired as the result of an investigation of what allegedly occurred in neighboring Davidson County.

In 2020, the Old Guilford County Court House was set to get a 100-year birthday celebration that was shaping up to be a very large event. COVID-19 had other plans for the party, however – and the old building that’s the center of Guilford County government never got the recognition it deserved…

In the movie “Brewster’s Millions,” the character played by Richard Pryor had to spend $30 million in 30 days, and, spoiler alert, he had trouble doing it; however, the Guilford County Board of Commissioners had no trouble whatsoever spending $37 million in 30 minutes…

If you ever want someone to plan an itinerary for a trip to a foreign country, whatever you do, don’t get the Guilford County Budget Department to do it for you – they’re obviously not good at picking out the most fun sites…