Author: Scott D. Yost

That is just part of a long classified ad that fascinated many readers who came across it in the High Point Enterprise earlier this week – and that left them wondering what the heck was going on.  Those who waded through the complex text likely noticed a word or two they knew – such as “April” or “Congo” – however, otherwise, they had no idea what the message said.

Chairman of the Guilford County Board of Commissioners Skip Alston is putting forth a major new initiative to see that every part of the county that wants a water and sewer system will have one.  Alston told the Rhino Times that, currently, Guilford County is in a better position to expand its water and sewer options to its municipalities than at any time before – and he added that he intends to see that happen.

This week, Guilford County government put out a press release simply to remind people of the importance and dedication of the people who care for our animal companions and keep them under control. The release noted that Sunday, April 11, through Saturday, April 17 is National Animal Care and Control Appreciation Week. 

At 6 p.m. on Wednesday, April 14, Chairman of the Guilford County Board of Commissioners Skip Alston and the mayors of the cities and towns in the county met to discuss spending plans for the millions of dollars the local governments will get in federal COVID-19 relief money and other issues. 

High Point’s new downtown stadium, Truist Point, has been billed as a “multi-use stadium” – however, with an announcement that came on Tuesday, April 13, it becomes even more of a baseball stadium.   The ballpark is already home to the High Point Rockers baseball team.  This week, it was announced that the High Point Hushpuppies – a collegiate summer baseball team that’s a member of the Old North State League – will call the stadium home this season as well.

Over the past year, the state has added numerous online shopping options so that program participants can stay safe when purchasing food.  Before the pandemic, using the service usually meant going to a store to shop and pay. However, the state has added numerous online shopping options and, this week, Publix Super Markets was added to the list where NC Food and Nutrition Services participants can use their Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) cards.

On Thursday evening, April 15, the commissioners will pay tribute to a hero dog that has served the Guilford County Sheriff’s Department for seven years and is now stepping down so that younger pups will have their chance to serve.

Say what you will about the federal government helping out local governments in the pandemic, but one thing is clear – the federal COVID-19 relief acts of 2020 and 2021 have enhanced the county’s finances.

On Thursday, April 15, the Guilford County Board of Commissioners will accept two grants on behalf of the Guilford County Sheriff’s Department – one for just over $214,000, and one for $217,000 and change – in order to battle the drug dealers who do business in Guilford County.

The Guilford County Board of Commissioners is getting into budget season – a very busy time for the board – so it should be no surprise that the board has just scheduled a long work session for Thursday afternoon, April 15, immediately before the board holds a regular commissioners meeting.

The Guilford County Board of Commissioners – like many, boards, commissions and city councils – habitually rubber stamps a lot of things. However, one thing the Guilford County Board of Commissioners almost never rubber stamps are requests brought by the Guilford County Board of Education.  So, it could be an interesting discussion on Thursday evening, April 15, when the Guilford County commissioners hear the proposed spending plan for $300 million in school bond money that voters approved in the November election.

At the Thursday, April 15 meeting of the Guilford County Board of Commissioners, the board is expected to accept, on behalf of the Guilford County Sheriff’s Department and the High Point Police Department, receipt of a Justice Assistance Grant of nearly $140,000 that will go toward purchasing new tools for the law enforcement trade.

The High Point City Council usually meets in the council chambers in downtown High Point. However, on Friday, April 16, the council is meeting at Grandover Resort Golf and Spa.  When a staffer in the city clerk’s office was asked why the city councilmembers were meeting at Grandover, and was asked the purpose of the meeting, she said she could not give out that information. 

Piedmont Triad Partnership’s Carolina Core Regional Economic Development Director Loren Hill said this week that, despite the lingering COVID-19 pandemic, there’s a lot of positive activity going on when it comes to business recruitment in Guilford County and the other central North Carolina counties that make up the “Carolina Core region.”

In Guilford County, and across the state, anyone 16 years of age or older is eligible for a COVID-19 vaccination – and there are finally enough vaccine doses out there for people to get appointments without too much trouble.

Wake County North Carolina made national news on Thursday, April 8 – and it was a story that caused a lot of people across the state and the country to become somewhat apprehensive about one of the COVID-19 vaccines now in use. 

On Thursday, April 8, the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (NCDHHS) released findings from a new public opinion poll on COVID-19 vaccine risks and rewards in the minds of people across the state. The poll gives the state some good news regarding people’s opinions of COVID-19 vaccinations.  It showed quite a contrast from some of the same polling questions asked in 2020.  Trust in the vaccines has gone up and so have the number of people who say they will be or already have been vaccinated.

Even though the ability to test for COVID-19 remains extremely important,  Guilford County’s testing site at 501 E. Green Dr. in High Point is being shut down. 

On Friday, April 8, when the United Way of Greater Greensboro’s “Lunch and Learn Series” is hosted by United Way Young Leaders, the topic of discussion – one that’s now a heated debate across the country – will be whether or not the government should forgive student loans.

On Wednesday, April 7, state health officials pointed out that North Carolina’s work to reach “underserved and historically marginalized populations and deliver equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines” exhibits excellent practices and that those practices can now act as a model approach for the country. 

Well, it’s bad news for the High Point Rockers but it’s good news for Rockers’ catchers Kole McKinnon and Frank Nigro. 

If you are at or around Piedmont Triad International Airport (PTIA) on Friday, April 9, and you see balls of flame and what looks like a terrible disaster –well, sit back and calm down.  It’s only first responders conducting a practice run at handling airport emergencies. 

Guilford County Health Director Iulia Vann said this week that the county is purchasing mobile medical vehicles that will be used to take the COVID-19 vaccination effort to the public. 

A lot of alarming crimes kept area human law enforcement officers busy last year, but humans aren’t the only crime-fighting species in Guilford County.  The Guilford County Sheriff’s Department often calls on help from its K-9 unit, which is a fancy way of saying dog unit.  Though the K-9 agents don’t speak the language – nor do they accept payment for their work – in 2020, they were a valuable asset to the department

Beginning Monday, June 7, for 10 weeks, Summer Camps at GreenHill will be trying to inspire both creativity and learning in area kids through various summer camps put on by the downtown art gallery.

The United Way of Greater Greensboro, in partnership with the Volunteer Center of the Triad, and other local community organizations, is promoting a wide number of volunteer opportunities for local residents who want to give back. The effort is part of National Volunteer Week – which runs from Monday, April 19 through Friday, April 23.

On Thursday, April 8, Matthews Specialty Vehicles announced that it will hold a celebration to honor the opening of a new facility as well as the addition of 50 new jobs to the company’s payroll.

On Saturday, April 3, Guilford County elected leaders, in partnership with local churches and nonprofit organizations, will be helping feed the less fortunate county residents through a food giveaway in High Point.

Guilford County government has a lot of capital projects on the stove right now and Guilford County Manager Mike Halford told the Rhino Times this week that there’s another one on the way: a massive, multi-million dollar overhaul and repair of the large governmental plaza that sits in downtown Greensboro, between the Old Guilford County Court House, the Melvin Municipal Office Building and the Guilford County Courthouse.

On Thursday, April 1, the Guilford County Sheriff’s Department announced that all the inmates confined in the Guilford County jails – in Greensboro and High Point – had been offered a COVID-19 vaccination. Medical professionals were giving out the Johnson & Johnson vaccine to those inmates willing to take it.  According to the press release from the department, just over a third of the inmates accepted the shot.

On Thursday, April 1, the Guilford County Board of Commissioners got together and talked a lot of trash to each other.  Specifically, in the afternoon work session in the Blue Room of the Old Guilford County Court House in downtown Greensboro, the board heard arguments from two trash collection companies operating in the county that were both asking for rate increases.

The Guilford County Board of Commissioners has been meeting for a year with virtually no one in the audience and with the commissioners wearing masks.

On Thursday, April 1, the game changed and – one day after the county announced that it was opening up the vaccine process to all adults – the county announced that there was now a slew of spots available for which to schedule a vaccine appointment.

If you’re employed at Chick-fil-A, you have constant and easy access to a lot of very delicious chicken sandwiches and nuggets. However, one high school student now bound for the University of North Carolina at Greensboro got another very big surprise perk from the company – a  $25,000 college scholarship.

The Guilford County Board of Commissioners has scheduled a work session for Thursday, April 1, 2021, at 3 p.m. At that meeting in the Blue Room of the Old Guilford County Court House, the seven Democratic commissioners will begin discussing the county’s fiscal 2021-2022 budget.  Of course, the board’s two Republican commissioners – Justin Conrad and Alan Perdue – will be able to weigh in as well.  However, when push comes to shove in June, it will be Democrats who determine how taxpayer money is spent over the following 12 months.

Guilford County just opened its vaccination eligibility to anyone over 16. However, the state is running a little behind the county.  NC Governor Roy Cooper and NC Health and Human Services Secretary Dr. Mandy Cohen announced on Thursday, March 25, that the state will open up vaccine eligibility to all adults in North Carolina beginning on Wednesday, April 7.

Every month should be a time to fight child abuse.   However, the State of North Carolina has declared April in particular as Child Abuse Prevention Month in North Carolina, and state officials are using the month to highlight the ways citizens can fight child abuse.

On Wednesday, March 31, Guilford County government had a very big announcement. Everyone aged 17 and up can get vaccinated for coronavirus.

On Thursday, April 1, the Guilford County Board of Commissioners is expected to put nearly $100,000 of new taxpayer money into repairs for a building that’s been a notorious money pit for well over a decade. The price keeps going up on Guilford County’s building at 325 E. Russell Ave. in High Point – now known as the Langford Building.  Guilford County purchased the building in 2008 to house its social services operations in High Point as well as other county functions.

Though questioned by some historians, feudal lords in medieval Europe were said to have the “right of the first night’ – a legal right to engage in sexual relations with any woman on the land they ruled, on that woman’s wedding night no less.  While the Guilford County Board of Commissioners doesn’t have any first rights that are that scandalous, the commissioners do have certain first rights, including the right of first refusal when it comes to buying surplus Guilford County School’s property that’s being put up for sale.

The Guilford County Board of Commissioners met with the mayors and other top officials of the county’s towns and cities on early this month and, based on comments by participants, there are likely to be a lot more of these “roundtable” discussions in the future. Chairman of the Board of Commissioners Skip Alston, the driving force behind the get-together, said he believes it’s a very helpful practice for everyone involved, and he added that he’d like to start holding this type of meeting twice a year.

Guilford County has been making an effort in recent years to promote more preservation of farmland and natural areas.  There’s been a lot of consternation about “urban sprawl” in many parts of the county and one program that’s being used to fight it is the Voluntary Agricultural District program.  At a Thursday, April 1 meeting of the Guilford County Board of Commissioners, the board is expected to approve not one, not two, not three, but four tracks of land as Voluntary Agricultural Districts.

Through the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services’ (NCDHHS) COVID-19 “Support Services Program,” more than 35,000 households in the state got relief payments, food or other resources and services that helped them quarantine during the pandemic. According to a Monday, March 29 press release from NCDHHS, the program is now winding down and no new services can be requested.

The year of 2020 and the early part of 2021 may have been terrible for Piedmont Triad International Airport (PTIA) when it comes to passenger traffic, but, according to a Monday, March 29 press release, PTIA is doing terrific in job creation.

County commissioners, agriculture officials, transportation managers and representatives of community groups across North Carolina are getting together to figure out ways that counties can use their existing assets  to keep the public well-fed during the pandemic and beyond.

state health officials haven’t forgotten that the ability to easily test for the virus is also part of the strategy.  On Friday, March 26, the state announced a new weapon in that battle. The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (NCDHHS), in partnership with Labcorp, will provide 35,000 no-cost home tests to North Carolinians who are currently using Food and Nutrition Services – formerly called the Food Stamp Program – or who are disabled and are “experiencing barriers to getting tested.”

On Thursday, April 1, the Board of Commissioners is expected to enter into a contract with Cherry Bekaert LLP – the same firm the county has selected to audit its books for years and years.

On Thursday, April 1, the Guilford County Board of Commissioners is scheduled to vote on accepting $1,258,678 in federal and state funds for the Public Health Division of the Guilford County Department of Health and Human Services.

The Rockers will kick off their second season of baseball on Friday, May 28 when they visit the York Revolution.  The home opener – at Truist Point in downtown High Point – is slated for Tuesday, June 1, and will be against the Lexington Legends – one of two new teams to join the Atlantic League in 2021. 

The State of North Carolina has expanded its COVID-19 vaccine data dashboard to include information about those who’ve been vaccinated through the federal long-term care and retail pharmacy programs. Users will now be able to view the information regarding people who have been vaccinated through these federal pharmacy programs – with a demographic breakdown by county, race, ethnicity, gender and age group of those getting the vaccinations through stores like Walgreen’s, CVS and other pharmacies.