Author: Scott D. Yost

It’s been a long time coming for animal lovers across Guilford County, but the moment is finally here. The county is shutting down the dilapidated Animal Shelter at 4525 W. Wendover Ave. and opening up the brand new, shiny shelter at 980 Guilford College Road in Greensboro.   The old shelter will be closed permanently on Monday, Oct. 25.

The second round of a NC Department of Health and Human Services (NCDHHS) program offering up support to the hungry doesn’t benefit Guilford County residents. However, those in Guilford County facing hunger may be able to find help through two other food provision programs that do.

Greenways in cities are always nice to have, but they’re especially popular during pandemics when everyone likes to walk their dog – or just walk themselves – five or six times a day. 

Companies across the country may be having trouble filling jobs, but it’s still the case that the more jobs a city gets the better, and this week Cambrex announced expansion plans that will bring at least 78 new full-time jobs to the city.

On Saturday, Oct. 2, the Guilford County Sheriff’s Department reported that, at just after 7 a.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 29, a 52-year-old inmate, William Easterling, was found “unresponsive inside a holding cell” at the county’s jail in High Point and later died from what’s thought to be suicide.

If it’s a birthday that requires you to renew your North Carolina driver’s license, well, it might not be a very happy birthday after all.  In fact, it could be downright depressing because there are no available appointments anytime soon in Department of Motor Vehicle offices in Greensboro for driver’s license renewals. 

Guilford County has dramatically expanded its phone app for nature lovers and county officials are holding an event to get the word out.   On Friday, Oct. 1, at 10 a.m., app promoters will put on a presentation and instructional session for the new “Piedmont Discovery” app upgrade.

With a 24/7 year-round news cycle focused on vaccinating human beings for COVID-19, word of another mass vaccination program now underway in North Carolina hasn’t even made a blip on the news radar.  However, the state announced on Friday, Sept. 30, that it’s working with the United States Department of Agriculture to help prevent the spread of rabies by giving rabies vaccines orally to wild raccoons in the state.

Over the past year and eight months, the state of North Carolina has been frantically communicating with the residents of the state in many, many ways. 

High Point Mayor Jay Wagner is hoping to learn a few new tricks as part of a special educational program he’ll be taking part in. Wagner will join city leaders from around the world in the fifth, year-long class of Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative.

Nothing lasts forever and one subcategory of things that don’t is lighting systems for emergency communication towers – systems that have to work day and night, week after week, year after year.  In Summerfield, the lighting system on the emergency communication tower at 5501 Centerfield Road has been operational for nearly three decades – and now it needs to be replaced.

The High Point Parks & Recreation’s “Special Populations” section has a new name and new energy.  It has just become ASPIRE – which stands for “Adaptive Sports, Programs and Inclusive Recreation,” and the section has a number of upcoming events planned for children with unique challenges.

The City of High Point and Keep High Point Beautiful are once again coming together to put on the annual, citywide effort to get the city looking sharp and litter free. The 2021 “Big Sweep” cleanup event will take place on Saturday, Oct. 2 and run from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

If you think Guilford County government isn’t serious about enforcing its mask mandate – well, think again.  Letters being sent to business owners in the county state in no uncertain terms that the law now requires that facemasks be worn indoors at public places, and it adds that there are increasing financial penalties for not following and enforcing the mask mandate.

This year on Veteran’s Day – Nov. 11 – local veterans will be honored with the “Triad Honor Flight,” a very special plane trip that will take 100 veterans to Washington, DC, to visit memorials. 

At almost exactly 9 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 24, a man with a tote bag stuffed full of goods that he didn’t pay for bolted out of the Walgreens at 300 E. Cornwallis Dr. in Greensboro and quickly drove away, leaving the staff at the store rattled and irate. 

On Friday, Sept. 24, NC Gov. Roy Cooper issued Executive Order 234 –  extending proof-of-immunization and health assessment documentation deadlines for schools and child-care facilities across the state.

One thing people in Guilford County, the United States and around the world have learned during the COVID-19 pandemic, is that, in a pandemic, governments become very, very generous. 

The Guilford County Sheriff’s Department reported on Friday, Sept. 24, that officers had been notified of “an incident involving a juvenile” and a former school worker. 

In an open letter to faith leaders across the state, North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (NCDHHS) Secretary Dr. Mandy Cohen and Gov. Roy Cooper expressed their gratitude for the state’s faith community’s support so far during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In the November 2020 election, Guilford County voters approved $300 million in school bonds to take care of school construction, repair and maintenance needs.

Leadership Greensboro – a program that falls under the Greensboro Chamber of Commerce – welcomed the new class of 2022 as that program kicks off its latest attempt to forge community leaders of the future.

Guilford County Sheriff Danny Rogers and the department he runs have recently been putting an emphasis on nabbing those people who dump waste illegally in the county since the problem has become pervasive. 

Guilford County government is hoping to enhance its public image and that’s one reason right now that Guilford County Manager Mike Halford and Human Resource officers are sifting through candidate resumes for the brand new high-paying Guilford County public relations officer job. 

Right now, various political wonks and others with a vested interest in how elections turn out are creating proposed new Guilford County commissioner districts using the tools at https://redistricting.guilfordcountync.gov/. 

One main goal for Guilford County and the state of North Carolina since the pandemic began has been to put a priority on creating an equitable response that meets the health needs of minorities and the disenfranchised. 

In late August, the Guilford County Board of Commissioners adopted a mandatory mask mandate for Guilford County – but the question now is when that mandate will end.  This week, Chairman of the Board of Commissioners Skip Alston, who’s the leader of the Democrats on the board who will make the call, said the rule will be in effect as long as it takes.

The Guilford County Family Justice Center is probably best known for its work with battered spouses in the county, but it addresses a lot of issues as well and, this week, the Justice Center was focused on “elder abuse” issues and held a summit on the problem on Wednesday, Sept. 15.

Guilford County has begun the process of redrawing county Board of Commissioners district lines due to the new population data in the 2020 US Census, and a new web-based map-drawing tool is online for anyone who wants to suggest a district map.  The website to go to if you want to be a political cartographer for Guilford County this month is https://redistricting.guilfordcountync.gov.

Usually, the Guilford County Board of Commissioners tries to make decisions that reflect the will of the people, but a lot of evidence indicates that board’s current mask mandate isn’t one of those decisions. 

The redistricting process for Guilford County government is officially underway.

In a statement that could have implications for school systems across the state of North Carolina, on Thursday, Sept.16, the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (NCDHHS) issued a shot across the bow of Union County.

Guilford County has an ambulance availability problem in the worst way right now, but the Guilford County Board of Commissioners will be taking the first step toward addressing that problem at the board’s Thursday, Sept. 16 meeting. 

According to the Guilford County Sheriff’s Department, on Monday, Sept. 13 at 4:15 p.m., an inmate being held in the county’s High Point Detention Center died. 

Do you want to have your say about how Guilford County spends the millions and millions of dollars it’s getting in federal COVID-19 relief funds?  Well, now’s your chance. Guilford County government is inviting county residents to take part in a series of meetings later this month called the “Community Conversations On Covid-19 Impacts And Recovery Funding Priorities.”

At the Thursday, Sept. 16 meeting of the Guilford County Board of Commissioners, the board is scheduled to accept and allocate $7,941,292 in federal money “to be used for COVID-19 screening testing and related costs for Guilford County public schools’ students and staff.”

The Guilford County Board of Commissioners has scheduled a special meeting for Thursday, Sept. 16 at 4:30 p.m. in order to work out some preliminary details for the coming commissioners districts’ redistricting process – a once-a-decade event that invariably is a contentious one.

The long-awaited Guilford County Behavioral Health Center is now open and this week the county announced that Debra Mack ­– a former Cone Health director – has been named the director of the center.

Guilford County government owns a lot of buildings, parking lots, land, structures, office space and other properties, and, on Monday, Sept. 13, the county sent out a request for help in creating a Guilford County Comprehensive Facility Plan. 

Just about every announcement coming out of the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (NCDHHS) these days has to do with COVID-19. However, on Monday, Sept. 13, the department had an alternative message for the public.  Health officials sent out a press release reminding everyone to get vaccinated against the flu since North Carolina still has flu season – even though the flu doesn’t get much press anymore

The Piedmont Discovery smartphone app – a joint app produced and managed by Greensboro, High Point and Guilford County – just got a lot better with new features and new details on local places to visit.  The mobile app is a park and trail locater, and on Monday, Sept. 13, the app’s makers announced that it now includes parks, trails and recreational options in Gibsonville, Jamestown, Oak Ridge, Pleasant Garden, Stokesdale and Summerfield.

The Guilford County Historic Preservation Commission is about to decide whether or not a mural can be put up on the side of the historic Weaver-Sherwin Building in downtown Greensboro. However, one interesting thing about this case is that the mural is already on the side of the building.

There aren’t a lot of openings for volunteer grape pickers right now, but, for all those frustrated grape pickers in and around Guilford County, now’s your chance. Guilford County Parks is putting on the annual “Big Pick” at the Guilford County Farm at 7315 Howerton Road in Gibsonville.

Anyone who watches America’s Got Talent has likely seen magician Mike Super do some amazing tricks. Now area residents will have the chance to see him perform in real life with no camera interceding.  Super really does have some grand and baffling tricks up his sleeve, and he’ll trot them out on Saturday, Sept. 25 at the High Point Theater.

On Wednesday, Sept. 8, the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (NCDHHS) announced that, all across the state, the department is seeing “a sharp increase” in coronavirus clusters among school sports teams.

The Summerfield town planner who has at times been a lightning rod for controversy in that town of 11,000 is no longer employed with Summerfield.  

September is Deaf Awareness Month and the NC Department of Health and Human Services (NCDHHS) is using the month, quite appropriately, to inform citizens how they can communicate better with the deaf while wearing masks.  

You don’t have to be an adult to appreciate clean and attractive natural surroundings and the Keep High Point Beautiful board is seeking applications from motivated high school students who want to join the Keep High Point Beautiful Youth Advisory Council for the 2021-2022 school year.

Guilford County health officials are making vaccination units mobile and sending them out into targeted communities where vaccination rates have been low.

The Guilford County Board of Commissioners just gave the Guilford County Sheriff’s Department four new positions and the department will try and fill those and other job slots at a special recruiting event on Thursday, Sept. 9 from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.