Author: Scott D. Yost

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.

Years ago, a library used to be a place where you could find a book to read, but these days the library is much more than that.In fact, on Valentine’s Day this year, the High Point library’s mixer for older adults could be the place some area residents meet the love of their life.

There have been a lot of exciting and positive economic development announcements out of High Point in recent years, and, on Tuesday. Jan. 7, there was another one to add to the list.

If you drive through downtown High Point, be prepared to find yourself hitting some blocked off roads for quite a while since the City of High Point is using the first months of 2020 to conduct extensive and necessary utility work that will close some key roads for months.

Inflation may have remained under control pretty well in 2019, however, the inmate population at both the Guilford County jail in Greensboro and the jail in High Point increased in 2019 compared with the jail populations in 2018.

The Guilford County Board of Commissioners is being asked to approve a special type of bond that would be used to help fund Revolution Academy – a new charter school that in 2019 got state approval to open and is now seeking the approval of the commissioners for $19 million in “Educational Facilities Revenue Bonds.”

Guilford County has been handing out a lot of monetary incentives to businesses in recent years and now a new $1.9 million incentives package has started down the road for approval.

After a decade and a half of dedicated service, Guilford County Health Director Merle Green is calling it quits and riding off into the sunset.   Well, actually, that’s what cowboys do when they retire, but Green will be doing whatever retired health directors do when they wrap up their long county careers.

The first major holiday of the year is fast approaching – Martin Luther King Jr. Day, on Monday, Jan. 20 – and Greensboro is getting ready.

Since the turn of the century, there’s been a whole lot of development in Guilford County, but there’s also been another effort going on largely under the radar – an effort by state and county officials along with landowners to preserve county farmland through the establishment of what’s known as “Voluntary Agricultural Districts.”

As the song says, “Baby, it’s cold outside,” but Greensboro Downtown Parks Inc. is attempting to warm up the prospects downtown with six programs for the community this season.

For the most part, employees of Guilford County government are satisfied with their job security and health insurance plans, but they, surprise, surprise, think their salaries should be higher. That’s according to a recent poll the county conducted of its employees.

The Summerfield Town Council is holding its annual retreat on Saturday, Feb. 1 and new Summerfield Mayor BJ Barnes said he wants the council to address some longstanding controversial issues head on – including the rules regarding development, the need for a limited water system for firefighting and the need for a new town meeting space.

Sure, area college students could spend spring break 2020 partying, however, for the third year in a row, the United Way of Greater Greensboro is asking them to do something more productive and rewarding with their time off from school.The organization is seeking 12 area students to participate in what it calls “Alternative Spring Break” – a volunteer program that runs from Monday, March 2 to Friday, March 6 this year. The students will have to get up earlier than they normally would on spring break. The United Way will be requesting their time from 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. each day.

The International Civil Rights Center and Museum is planning a big 2020 Gala since it’s the 60th Anniversary of the Sit-Ins in downtown Greensboro, and one way it’s hoping to make this year’s event a very special one is by bringing in former President Barack Obama.

If your New Year’s resolution is to enjoy more art and music in 2020, the GreenHill Center for North Carolina Art has you covered.The gallery has several shows and events planned in early 2020 and one is coming up this weekend. On Friday, Jan. 3, the downtown Greensboro gallery will feature the music of Hokum Pokum from 6 to 8:30 p.m. The band, as the name sort of indicates, celebrates the great string and jug band traditions of the 1920’s and 1930’s. According to promotional material from GreenHill about the event, Hokum Pokum “engages the crowd in a lively show with washboard rhythms providing the backdrop for spirited guitar, mandolin, and banjo, combined with vocals,” and the gallery promises the show will be “A little bit of history and a lot of fun!”

In 2019, the K-9 officers in the Guilford County Sheriff’s Department were – literally – working like dogs.Because, you know, K-9s are dogs.

NC A&T has hired Eric Muth, Ph.D., away from Clemson in a move expected to help the university secure more patents and grant money in the future.

The holiday season is a time of giving, and this year one area institution – High Point University (HPU) – gave back to the community in ways that touched a large number of lives.

On Monday, Dec. 30, Guilford County let it officially be known that it still has a county-owned downtown Greensboro building up for sale – if you have the money and the desire.

The finely tuned machine that is the Guilford County Board of Elections Office got a big wrench tossed into its gears by a federal district court judge – and now the voter ID requirement for the coming election is up in the air and local election officials across the state are scrambling to adjust to a highly uncertain situation.

The Journal of Public Health Management and Practice has bestowed a big honor on Jaimee Watts, a doctoral nursing student at the University of NC at Greensboro (UNCG).

According to the Guilford County Sheriff’s Department, in 2019 there were quite a few people who were naughty when it came to illegal drug use – but a lot of those drugs are now off the streets and some of the dealers are behind bars.

If you’re thinking about going out drinking and then driving on New Year’s Eve – or any other night for that matter – well, local law enforcement officials are reminding people that Guilford County has one of the most active and effective Driving While Impaired (DWI) task forces in the state.

The Guilford County Board of Commissioners has a lot of important decisions to make in 2019 and one that the board now faces is who to put into the highly sought after seat on the Piedmont Triad Airport Authority – the board that oversees operations at the all-important Piedmont Triad International Airport (PTIA).

While most people were sending out season’s greetings this week, the Guilford County Tax Department played Scrooge by reminding everyone about property taxes.

Christmastime brings a lot of joy and it also brings a lot of no longer needed Christmas trees, which is why this week local governments are instructing everyone how to properly dispose of those trees.

Guilford County seemed to come out pretty good recently after it had allocated $8 million to buy new voting machines and ended up spending closer to $2 million. However, as with most things in life, you pay now or you pay later, and, in the case of Guilford County elections, taxpayers will now be spending hundreds of thousands of dollars a year for paper ballots, while, in the past, the county hasn’t had to spend a dime on them.

Guilford County Commissioner Skip Alston said this week that he has begun an effort to get local businesses and the cities of Greensboro and High Point to collectively take on 10 percent of the school bond debt issued by the county in an expected upcoming bond referendum.

The International Civil Rights Center and Museum is basically planning to have a yearlong commemoration of the 60th Anniversary of the Greensboro Sit-Ins in 2020, and it’s not wasting any time kicking off that effort.

It probably doesn’t qualify as a full-scale bidding war yet, but Guilford County government is certainly seeing some interest in the county-owned building at 232 N. Edgeworth St. that the Board of Commissioners has put up for sale. This week – after the county posted a legally required notice for upset bids – a new buyer has come in and offered the county $1.925 million for the property.

On the night before the night before Christmas, ArtsGreensboro announced the recipients of some of the group’s gifts – the 2020 Wells Fargo Teacher Art Grants.

The Guilford County Board of Commissioners and Guilford County Board of Education have been having some disagreements lately – but all those disagreements could be solved by simply raising $2 billion for school repair and construction.

Christmas is a time of generosity and there was a little of that when it came time this year for the Guilford County Board of Commissioners to decide on raises for three county department heads.After discussion of the employees’ performance in a recent closed session, the board voted to give a 3 percent pay increase to three of its “direct reports” – employees who fall directly under the board and whose performance is reviewed by the board each year.

Just a few days before the national college football champion is determined next month, the Guilford County Planning Board will determine the developmental future of a large swath of land near the intersection of North Church Street and Ariel Farm Road just north of Greensboro.  

This week, the Greensboro Chamber of Commerce announced that Alan Duncan, a well-known Greensboro attorney who chaired the Guilford County Board of Education for years, and Mae Douglas, a community leader and philanthropist, have won two of the chamber’s highest annual awards.

Earlier this month, former Democratic Guilford County Commissioner Kirk Perkins filed to run in the Board of Commissioners District 4 race – a seat now held by Republican Commissioner Alan Branson – but then, days later, Perkins mysteriously pulled out of that race on the last day that he was eligible for a return of his $207 candidate filing fee.

Forget about voting for political candidates – that’s not until next year – but Piedmont Triad International Airport (PTIA) wants your vote right now.  

Troy Lawson, a former chairman of the Guilford County Republican Party and former candidate for the NC House of Representatives, is running to fill the Guilford County Board of Commissioners District 5 seat that’s now occupied by Jeff Phillips, the current chairman of the Guilford County Board of Commissioners.

Former Guilford County Commissioner Kirk Perkins, who filed earlier this month to run for the District 4 county commissioners seat, has pulled out of the race.

The Guilford County Register of Deeds Office still sees a boatload of paper on a regular basis, however, this week, Guilford County Register of Deeds Jeff Thigpen noted in his annual year-end report on the deeds office that, now, 70 percent of land records being filed in the county are being filed electronically – rather than through the centuries-old paper process.

A candidate for Guilford County commissioner who ran for election in District 8 in 2018 – a seat held by Commissioner Skip Alston – is making another go of it in 2020 and is hoping the second time’s a charm.Fahiym Hanna, the owner and operator of Sensuous Scents & Sights in Greensboro

Members of the Guilford County Board of Education and the Guilford County Board of Commissioners have scheduled a meeting this week that could be pivotal in determining the future of the school system’s facilities.

On Tuesday, Dec. 17, former High Point City Councilmember Jason Ewing threw his hat – and the rest of himself too – into the District 6 Guilford County Board of Commissioners race to vie for the seat that’s now held by Republican Commissioner Hank Henning.

Guilford County Commissioner Skip Alston, fresh off the success of helping get a $15-an-hour minimum wage for school bus drivers and other county employees, is now calling for a $1 billion school bond referendum to be placed on the ballot for the 2020 election.

Summerfield recently held a Town Council meeting to swear in a new mayor – former Guilford County Sheriff BJ Barnes – and that meeting was meant to be the start of a new era of peace and tranquility in the small town north of Greensboro that’s been fighting like cats and dogs for over three years.