Author: Scott D. Yost

A lot of people who like to eat healthy in Guilford County were very upset to hear the news on Monday, Feb. 3 that all Earth Fares – a store chain truly beloved by many area shoppers – would be shutting down.

State of North Carolina health officials notified members of the press of an interesting change in handling information on the coronavirus.

From this point on in the coronavirus situation, the NC Department of Health and Human Services will no longer disclose the number of people being tested for the new corona virus.

“He who plants a tree plants a hope.”

So wrote the late Massachusetts poet Lucy Larcom – and that’s the quote that Guilford County Soil and Water Conservation District agency officials are using this year to promote the group’s annual tree sale, which is now underway.

It’s that time of year again – the time when the Guilford County Sheriff’s Department begins working with residents who’d like to know a whole lot more about law enforcement. The classes are also, in some cases, a way for the department to find budding new deputies to address what in recent years has been a very high vacancy rate.

Chairman of the Guilford County Board of Commissioners Jeff Phillips has announced that he’s endorsing Republican Cyndy Hayworth for the District 5 county commissioners seat that he currently holds.

On Thursday, Jan. 30, Guilford County sent out a press release encouraging everyone to participate in the 2020 Census and explaining why it’s vital to do so. This is just one of many measures the county has taken to promote the once a decade practice that goes a long way in determining an area’s degree of political representation, amount of financial benefits and many other opportunities when local, state and federal governments implement programs.

Usually, State of North Carolina officials make announcements when something happens, but in this case, on Wednesday, Jan. 29, the NC Department of Health and Human Services (NCDHHS) announced that something hadn’t happened. Namely, the department informed the public that all suspected cases of the new deadly coronavirus in North Carolina have been false alarms.

Piedmont Triad International Airport (PTIA) has had a good deal to crow about lately, and, this week, at the monthly meeting of the Piedmont Triad Airport Authority, airport officials announced a milestone. In 2019, more than 1 million travelers boarded passenger planes at the airport – making that the first year PTIA has boarded more than 1 million passengers since the 2008 financial collapse.

The International Civil Rights Center and Museum in downtown Greensboro is presenting a show that poetry lovers should really enjoy – “An Evening with Jaki Shelton Green, North Carolina’s First African-American Poet Laureate” – which is part of a whole slate of activities this coming weekend that mark the 60th Anniversary of the Greensboro Sit-In civil rights protest that began on Feb. 1, 1960.

On Tuesday, Jan. 28, the board that oversees Piedmont Triad International Airport (PTIA) voted to make former Vice Chairman Jim White the new chairman.

One of Guilford County’s most beloved former leaders has died at the age of 72. John Shore, former deputy county manager and the man chosen to run the Guilford County Department of Social Services when that department was in a time of crisis, made a great many contributions to the county and the community.

Though the new coronavirus has been striking hard in places far away from North Carolina so far, the frightening and deadly virus already has local health officials, transportation officials and business leaders keeping a watchful eye and doing what they can to prepare.

Guilford County government is adding a new service to the county-owned BB&T building at 201 W. Market St. in downtown Greensboro – however, unlike the Register of Deeds office in that same building, the new service will be meant for Guilford County employees.

Super Tuesday will be here sooner than you know it and one very well-off Democratic presidential candidate announced on Monday, Jan. 27 that his campaign is opening an office in Greensboro to help in his effort.

Whether you love or hate the introduction of technology into sports, it continues its march – including the use of instant replay and robotic umpires.

As if the world needed something new to worry about in 2020, now there’s the threat of a global pandemic, and authorities in North Carolina are ramping up to address that threat before it gets here.

Say Yes Guilford, which stunned the community several years ago with the announcement of a giant financial shortfall, has been quietly gaining steam again in its attempt to see that area high school graduates get the financial help they need to attend college.

Guilford County’s coming new mental health center isn’t going to be open anytime soon, however, in the meantime, plenty of existing area nonprofits are doing what they can to help residents with mental health challenges.

If you know someone who’s made contributions to the arts in this area, speak now or forever hold your peace. Or, at least, hold it until this time next year.

One of the least controversial things the Guilford County Board of Commissioners does is honor historic moments, and, at the board’s Thursday, Jan. 16 meeting, the commissioners voted to pass a resolution commemorating the success of the national women’s suffrage movement as well as the formation of the NC League of Women’s Voters – both of which took place 100 years ago. In that same action, the board approved a historic marker and monument in honor of the League of Women Voters.

The Guilford County Sheriff’s Department has just gotten approval from the Guilford County Board of Commissioners to purchase four new vehicles – but these aren’t patrol cars.Two are “All-Terrain Vehicles,” better known as ATV’s, and the other two are somewhat similar: Utility Terrain Vehicles, or UTV’s.

If you’re a John Coltrane fan with views on what should happen to the jazz superstar’s childhood home in High Point, now’s your chance to express your opinions.

Greensboro City Councilmember Justin Outling, a partner with Brooks Pierce law firm, has – along with 39 other local young black leaders –been named one of the “40 Under 40 Most Influential African Americans In The Piedmont” by Black Business Ink magazine, which researched young black leaders in Guilford County and Forsyth County to pick the winners.

Before you go out and spend anywhere from $750 million to $1 billion, probably the first thing you do is figure out how to get your hands on that kind of money.

The new Guilford County animal shelter just took a big step forward and it’s set to take another big one in February.On Thursday, Jan. 16, the bidding closed for the contract to build the new roughly $15-million facility on Guilford College Road – and Guilford County Manager Marty Lawing informed the county’s Board of Commissioners that evening that the county got a whopping seven bids to do the work.

The International Civil Rights Center and Museum in downtown Greensboro has a very big night planned for its annual awards and fundraising gala on Saturday, Feb. 1.

If you buy a new car in North Carolina, you have the benefit of the state’s “Lemon Law,” which can force a dealer to replace your vehicle or give you a refund if it has repeated mechanical problems.Unfortunately for fire departments, local governments and emergency services departments, the law doesn’t cover vehicles such as fire trucks and ambulances. However, NC State Rep. Jon Hardister said this week that he’s now working on legislation that will extend Lemon Law protection to emergency vehicles.

Talk may be cheap – but what the Guilford County Board of Commissioners and Guilford County Schools officials have been talking about at great length this month certainly isn’t cheap – in fact, it could have a price tag of over a billion dollars.

Guilford County government has gotten some nice brand new doors on the Old Guilford County Court House in downtown Greensboro – and, while those three shiny new front doors look inviting, they most certainly are not.

On Thursday, Jan. 16, Syngenta AG – a global agricultural company with a large presence in Greensboro and Guilford County – came before the Guilford County Board of Commissioners and asked for nearly $2 million in incentives to remain in the area and make a capital investment of at least $68 million either in its current facility made up of 17 buildings on 70 acres or in a new facility.

A new report on airline fares found some good news for Piedmont Triad International Airport (PTIA).Namely, it calls into question the belief some hold that it’s very expensive to fly in and out of that airport.

If you haven’t learned the lesson by now, here’s another crystal clear example of the modern rule that what you post on social media can affect your employment.A gender-discrimination and Title IX trainer contracted by Guilford County Schools to train principals and assistant principals has been terminated after school officials and others read her highly controversial tweet and Facebook post.

The Guilford County Economic Development Alliance (GCEDA), which since its inception five years ago has met monthly at the Cameron Campus of Guilford County Technical Community College (GTCC) in Colfax, is moving its meetings to a shiny new high-profile home: GTCC’s Advanced Center for Manufacturing across Guilford College Road from to the GTCC Jamestown Campus.

It seems pretty crazy to put a little kid behind the wheel of a giant truck and let him or her drive it without any training.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention –better known simply as “the CDC” – recently released its latest “Sexually Transmitted Disease Surveillance Report,” which included new data on the number of reported sexually transmitted diseases – better known as STD’s – for counties and metro areas across the country, and, according to a research and medical-testing firm analyzing the results, Greensboro comes in 25th on a list of 100 areas with the highest STD rates.

On Wednesday, Jan 15, ArtsGreensboro announced that it had hired, not one, not two – but three new key staff members to help advance that organization’s cause of promoting art in the area.

The Kellin Foundation, the Greensboro Police Department and a host of other area agencies plan to get together this week to “formally recommit” to being partners in the Greensboro Child Response Initiative (CRI) – a community program that works to help children and families that are exposed to violence.

Piedmont Triad International Airport (PTIA) is slowly but surely adding new routes and new services, and, on Tuesday, Jan. 14, Allegiant Air announced new non-stop service from Greensboro to Nashville with some one-way fares running as low as $44.

On Tuesday, Jan. 14, NC Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger held a morning press conference and announced that there was no hope for the State of North Carolina to adopt a budget this session and Berger was right.

This week, the NC Digital Library – a library consortium consisting of the Greensboro Public Library and 22 other libraries in the state – announced a record setting 2 million e-book and audio-book checkouts in 2019, making it the 10th largest used public library consortium in the world in terms of total digital circulation.

It turns out that there’s a lot of interest in the Guilford County-owned building at 232 N. Edgeworth St.The property has just landed a new upset bid from one of Greensboro’s best-known success stories – Louis DeJoy, the retired CEO of XPO Logistics Inc. who now runs the equity and real estate firm LDJ Global Strategies.

Former Guilford County Board of Elections member and current Summerfield Scoop Facebook page proprietor Don Wendelken was shocked recently when he made a public records request to the Town of Summerfield and was notified by town officials that it would cost him $487 to get that information.On Friday, Nov. 15, 2019, Wendelken requested an electronic copy – not paper copies – of emails between town staff and Town Council for October and the first part of November, and, on Thursday, Jan. 2, 2020, the town sent him the following response: “The cost estimate for responding to your PRR [public records request] dated 11/15/19 is $487.89. Please advise as to whether you wish to proceed.”

Former Guilford County Tax Director Francis Kinlaw used to get upset whenever the Rhino Times wrote that he was the “nicest person in county government” because he wanted people to believe that the tax director was very mean so that citizens would be more likely to pay their taxes.While current tax officials may also want to maintain a stern “no love” image, a move expected this month by Guilford County government will mean that the department would start cutting a break to those who owe less than $5 in property taxes.

There may not be any such thing as a free lunch (actually, there is) – but in North Carolina in January there is such a thing as a free radon detection kit.

Park picnic shelters aren’t usually lightning rods for controversy, however, a new picnic shelter in Summerfield has been the focus of major disagreement – with some in that town saying the structure is an unnecessarily expensive Tajma-shelter, while others argue that the shelter is exactly what the town needed.

Sometimes Piedmont Triad International Airport (PTIA) and other airports around the country will point to a major promotion – such as lower fares to certain destinations – that really entice people to fly in and out of that airport. 

Nobody likes it when their phone service goes down but, when you’re an emergency response center and your 911 service is down, that’s a major, major problem that could even be a matter of life or death. 

The Guilford County Sheriff’s Department has released a position paper – a “joint Legislative Position Paper” that’s been adopted by the NC Sheriffs’ Association, the NC Conference of District Attorneys, the NC Association of Chiefs of Police and the NC State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) – urging the NC General Assembly to ban smokable hemp during the legislative session that begins next week.

January is the first month of the year but it’s also National Mentoring Month – a fact that may be less well known.Still, in honor of that designation, the City of Greensboro and the United Way of Greater Greensboro are introducing a new mentoring program aimed at area men and boys called “100 Males Mentoring”.  

The City of High Point will host a groundbreaking ceremony for the new High Point Police Department Headquarters and Communications Center on Friday, Jan. 10, at 10 a.m. at 1730 Westchester Dr.