Author: Scott D. Yost

The City of Greensboro is calling for suggestions on ways to spruce up south Greensboro, make it more accommodating, visually appealing and an all-around better place to live and do business.

The city is especially interested in hearing what the residents, business owners and frequent visitors of south Greensboro have to say regarding that area and, in order to gather input for future improvements, the city is inviting those interested to attend an upcoming “Culture and Authenticity Workshop for the South Greensboro Plan.”…

Representatives from Transco – a subsidiary of Williams Companies – came before the Guilford County Board of Commissioners on Thursday, May 15, to explain a proposed natural gas pipeline expansion that would cut through the Oak Ridge area.

The discussion focused on safety measures, public input opportunities, and environmental considerations surrounding the controversial project….

Guilford County Manager Mike Halford presented his recommended fiscal 2025-2026 budget to the Board of County Commissioners during the board’s regular meeting on Thursday, May 15, and the budget included a little something for everyone, but, in many cases, not as much as department directors and school leaders would have liked.

Halford’s total general county budget comes to $842 million, which compares to $834 million for the 2024-2025 budget adopted last June..

Earlier this year, the Guilford County Board of Education asked the Guilford County Board of Commissioners to give them $44 million more for school operations than the county gave the schools last year. However, if the county commissioners’ final budget is anything like the budget Guilford County Manager Mike Halford proposed at the commissioners’ Thursday, May 15 meeting, then the school funding for operations will be woefully short of the schools’ request…

The Rhino Times has been covering Guilford County government since the early 1990s and, for the first time since then, and perhaps even long before then, the county’s savings account – the “unassigned fund balance,” often described as the financial safety net for local governments – has fallen below the mark of 8 percent of the budget.

 That 8 percent mark has long been considered by state finance oversight officials to be the very bare minimum any local government in the state should maintain…

The City of Greensboro’s Historic Preservation Program is an official house sponsor of Preservation Greensboro’s 15th annual Tour of Historic Homes and Gardens. The city announced recently that the 2025 tours will be offered from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday, May 17 and from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday, May18 in the Irving Park National Register Historic District….

The Guilford County Family Justice Center is looking for a few local heroes – the kind of people who step up for their older neighbors whenever the elderly need help the most.

In recognition of World Elder Abuse Awareness Day – which falls on Sunday, June 15 – the justice center’s Elder Justice Committee is now accepting nominations for its 2025 Elder Justice Champion Award….

On Monday, May 12, the Guilford County Parks Department announced everything you need to know regarding the pools run by the county and what the summer water fun schedule and fees will look like.

First things first: Guilford County Parks Aquatic Centers at Bur-Mil Park, Hagan-Stone Park and Northeast Park will open on Memorial Day weekend….

It’s that time of year again.

It’s budget crunch time and on Thursday, May 15, Guilford County Manager Mike Halford will drop the big bomb that, each year, blows the budget discussion wide open.

Halford, as manager, has a whole lot of important duties related to his job; however, putting together and presenting the manager’s proposed budget, as he’ll do on Thursday night, is the most important thing he does each year…

The Greensboro Chamber of Commerce does more than just try to bring together and aid Greensboro area businesses; the organization also takes time each year to recognize those businesses that are really contributing to the community. 

To that end, on Thursday, May 8, the Chamber hosted its annual Small Business Awards event at Piedmont Hall at 2409 W. Gate City Blvd.

 The affair brought together a myriad of …

National research has demonstrated a link between civic engagement and community health, and, according to Grantmakers in Health – a nonprofit, educational organization dedicated to helping local foundations and corporations who give back to the community – “civic participation strengthens democracy, fosters social cohesion and improves public policies that impact community well-being.”

Which is why High Point is going to try to implement that strategy…

For at least 35 years, probably longer, I’ve been hearing that, in order to have any real solution to the southern border problem, there would need to be bi-partisan legislation by Congress.

I have literally heard that over and over again for decades. 

However, it turns out that was one big lie.

Perhaps “lie” is the wrong word to use there because I believe many people who’ve been saying that for years wholeheartedly believed it to be true…

Granted, Greensboro lost the permanent possession of the men’s Atlantic Coast Conference Basketball Tournament after the University of Barcelona and the Figi Islands College of Marine Biology were added to the ACC; however, the Greensboro Convention and Visitors Bureau had a big announcement on Wednesday, May 7 that should still allow the city to keep calling itself “Tournament Town.”

Pickleball, America’s fastest-growing sport, has shown astounding popularity, especially among older adults, and, from Wednesday, May 28 to Sunday, June 1, pickleball will take over the Greensboro Special Events Center with the city’s first major event of its kind – a USA Pickleball Golden Ticket tournament…

If you regret that, since you’re an adult, you can no longer have fun like you did in recess as a kid – well, Greensboro Parks and Rec has just the thing for you.

And, unlike elementary school, it will even include adult beverages if those are to your liking.

“The Greensboro Parks and Recreation Department’s Adult Recess” will take place from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Friday, May 16, at the Barber Park sprayground which is located at 1500 Barber Park Dr. in Greensboro…

May was declared Mental Health Awareness Month in 1949, and every year since then the month has been used nationally to call attention to mental health problems, issues and resources. 

This year, in May 2025, Guilford County is using the month to host two community mental health resource fairs. The county also has some big projects underway meant to address mental health and behavioral health problems faced by county residents in various targeted groups…

There was a very interesting moment at the Guilford County Board of Commissioners’ Thursday evening, May 1 meeting.  US Sen. Thom Tillis had recently publicly accused Guilford County, Forsyth County and seven other counties in the state of being sanctuary counties – that is, ones that are generally uncooperative with federal immigration agents looking to deport people.

Both Guilford County Sheriff Danny Rogers and Forsyth County Sheriff Bobby Kimbrough, Jr. adamantly denied their county being a sanctuary county.  Both said they worked well with the feds…

On Monday, May 5, a lot of people were celebrating because it was Cinco De Mayo; however, there was also a large contingent of celebrants gathered at the corner of Eugene Street and Bellemeade Street to revel for another reason: Carroll Companies was breaking ground on what will be a new hotel and mixed-use project at the site downtown near where Greensboro developer Roy Carroll built the Hyatt Place hotel.

Before the honorary shovels dug into the dirt, short speeches were provided by Downtown Greensboro Inc. President Zack Matheny, Chairman of the Guilford County Board of Commissioners Skip Alston and Greensboro Mayor Nancy Vaughan…

On Friday, May 2, the Guilford County Sheriff’s Office Major Crimes Investigative Unit announced that it had charged 19-year-old Ian Jeffrey Strenk with Death by Distribution after an extensive investigation into a fatal overdose that occurred last August.

On Thursday, August 22, 2024, sheriff’s deputies responded to a call regarding a reported overdose on Olde Forest Drive in southeastern Greensboro near the Forest Oaks area…

The Guilford County Sheriff’s Office doesn’t take kindly to people who are not law enforcement officers but pretend to be – and they demonstrated that fact this week by arresting a scammer who was posing as an officer and locking him up in jail.

The Guilford County Sheriff’s Office reported that, on Thursday, May 1, deputies arrested 21-year-old Kishan Kumar Singh – an international student from India – after he allegedly attempted to scam an elderly Stokesdale woman by pretending to be a law enforcement officer….

A coalition of local advocates known as Keep Gate City Housed urged the Guilford County Board of Commissioners, on Thursday, May 1, to take several steps to reduce evictions and homelessness in the county.

Speaking at the board’s regular meeting, members of the group called for, among other things, expanded legal representation for tenants and long-term county funding for rental assistance programs.

The group, which formed in early 2024, has been meeting with city and county officials over the past year – as well as with service providers, volunteers and hundreds of Greensboro residents affected by housing insecurity…

Residents of the town of Oak Ridge showed up in force at the Guilford County Commissioners meeting on Thursday evening, May 1, to voice their strong opposition to a proposed natural gas pipeline that would cut through their community. They cited threats to safety, water quality, the climate and more.

The proposal is part of Williams Transco’s Southeast Supply Enhancement Project, which seeks to expand natural gas infrastructure across several southeastern states…

Deputy City Manager Chris Wilson, who has been serving the City of Greensboro for a very long time, publicly announced his retirement on Tuesday, April 29.

Wilson kicked off his career with the City of Greensboro in the last century – specifically, in June of 1992. Over the last 33 years he’s been instrumental in a wide variety of ways in making Greensboro the city it has become through years of growth…

On Monday, April 28, Action Greensboro unveiled its “2025 Pre-K to 12 Public Education Report,” which is meant to be “a comprehensive, data-driven assessment of the current state of education in Guilford County.”

 The report highlights the major challenges currently facing the county’s public school system while offering what Action Greensboro calls “a clear-eyed roadmap for improving outcomes for every child, regardless of zip code.”

This wide-ranging report released this week looks at things like early childhood access, academic performance, school funding, teacher workforce trends, enrollment shifts and student support services…

The North Carolina Sheriffs’ Association hosted sheriffs, top staff from sheriff’s offices, as well as other state and federal officials from across North Carolina this week at their annual Spring Meeting in New Hanover County where they talked about all things law enforcement.

Founded in 1922, the North Carolina Sheriffs’ Association is a statewide not-for-profit professional and educational organization that was created to bring the state’s 100 sheriffs together at times during the year in order to strengthen the law enforcement profession in the state and to improve services their offices provide to the people of North Carolina…

When current Guilford County Clerk of Court Lisa Johnson-Tonkins is sworn in as a Superior Court judge in May, the county’s court system will have a tried and true replacement to fill that vacancy, keeping track of court records and performing many other duties that keep the courts functioning smoothly.

On Monday afternoon, April 28, Guilford County Senior Resident Superior Court Judge Stuart Albright announced that David Churchill will be the new clerk of court for the Guilford County court system…

The Guilford County Sheriff’s Office arrested an alleged killer over a month and a half ago; however, until Saturday, April 26, the identity of the victim remained a mystery.

This weekend, the Sheriff’s Office reported that its Major Crimes Investigative Unit had identified the victim of the homicide in Jamestown.

The victim was a 33-year-old Honduran man named Jose Margarito Alvarez-Espinal…

Everybody knows things are getting more costly these days, and one of those things that’s become very costly indeed for Guilford County government is providing translation services for the increasing number of non-English speakers who live in the county and use the county’s health services.

At the Thursday, May 1 meeting of the Guilford County Board of Commissioners, the board is expected to approve a one-year extension of its contract with Pacific Interpreters, which will provide over-the-phone and remote video interpreting services for the Public Health Division of the Guilford County Department of Health and Human Services…

On Friday, April 25, and Saturday, April 26, organized protests in Greensboro – as well as in other cities across the world – are taking place in a global effort that’s calling for some eye-opening and lofty changes in the structure of the housing market in the US and worldwide. The stated effort of the group is “to reclaim homes, resist evictions, and demand an end to housing injustice.”

The group doing the organizing in Greensboro is the American Friends Service Committee – a Quaker organization that works on housing issues in Greensboro….

The Guilford County Board of Commissioners and members of the Guilford County Board of Education are going to hold a joint meeting on Wednesday, April 30 and boy is there a lot to talk about.

 The Joint Capital/Facilities Committee – a body consisting of the Guilford County Board of Commissioners and the Guilford County Board of Education – has scheduled the April 30 meeting for 4 p.m. in the John McAdoo Conference Room on the third floor of the former Truist Bank Building at 201 W. Market St. in Greensboro…

Elon University has just revealed the findings of a new national poll the school conducted...

Community residents are being invited to provide input regarding the “vision for the Future of Downtown Greensboro.”

Right off the bat, the Rhino Times suggests easier parking, doing something about the incomprehensible downtown traffic patterns, and perhaps finding a way not to have road construction going on on every downtown road at the exact same time…

The city of Greensboro is making history this week as the first city in the state of North Carolina to be named a “Family Forward Community” – and the celebration of that honor will take place on Friday evening, April 25, at LeBauer Park in downtown Greensboro.

Hosted by Action Greensboro and the Greensboro Chamber of Commerce, the event, which will run from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m., will highlight Greensboro’s growing commitment to family-friendly workplaces – that is, ones that support a good work-life balance and help attract top talent to the area…

The Piedmont Triad Airport Authority – the seven-member board that oversees the airport’s operations – met on Tuesday, April 22 and elected Graham Bennett as the chair of that board of directors.

Bennett succeeds former Chair Paul Mengert, who’s served in that position for the past five years. A great deal of praise was deservedly given to Mengert as he stepped down from that job.

According to an announcement of the election by the Airport Authority board, “Mr. Mengert, appointed by the City of Greensboro, has been a member of the Airport Authority Board since 2012. While stepping down as chairman voluntarily, he will continue to serve on the board through the end of his term, which concludes on April 20, 2027. Mengert, CEO of Association Management Group…

In partnership with the NC Department of Information Technology, on Monday, April 21, Guilford County government unveiled a brand new website that’s meant to be attractive and more user friendly,  and also meant to provide an overall improved resident experience with a focus on accessibility.

The new site currently displays a green banner announcing its arrival. It states, “Welcome to the new GuilfordCountyNC.Gov! Created with residents first in mind, the new Guilford County website features easier navigation, greater accessibility options, and refreshed language to help you meet your needs….

In an effort to improve emergency response times and make property identification clearer across the county, the Guilford County Board of Commissioners voted unanimously on Thursday, April 17, to approve a number of important updates to the rules that govern how streets and addresses are named and assigned.

These changes, which take effect 30 days after the vote, were recommended by the Guilford County Planning Board and they’re meant to simplify address formatting, improve consistency, and help first responders and delivery drivers find homes and businesses more efficiently…

You may have noticed that Duke Energy has removed light poles on North Greene Street in order to get ready for the impending demolition of the Bellemeade Street Deck in downtown Greensboro. 

And you can prepare for road and sidewalk closures beginning Monday, April 21.

The project is being handled by D.H. Griffin Companies, which is barricading off some roads ahead of the demolition. Detours and sidewalk closures will also be in place throughout the process…

If you’ve flown out of Piedmont Triad International Airport lately, you probably paid a little more for your ticket than you would have if you had flown out of Raleigh or Charlotte, but you probably also know the secret of PTI: It’s just easy.

It’s simple, rarely crowded, and though they raised the price of parking not that long ago, the cost is still reasonable….

Many, many Oak Ridge residents really, really don’t want a new methane pipeline project running right smack through their town and this week they let the county commissioners hear about it.

The Guilford County Board of Commissioners held a work session on Thursday afternoon, April 17, in the large third-floor conference room of the county-owned BB&T building in downtown Greensboro. One reason for the work session was to hear from Oak Ridge residents who are concerned about a proposed expansion of the Williams-Transco pipeline – a project currently under review by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC)….

President Donald Trump has a lot of big plans for the country and, as the song “New York, New York” goes, he wants to do it his way.

 However, when it comes to the case of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia – the El Salvadoran man that the Trump administration mistakenly sent to a notoriously brutal prison in that country – a federal court of appeals has put an end to Trump doing it his way, at least for now.

A lower court recently ordered Trump’s Department of Justice to take action to help bring Garcia back to America so he can receive the due legal process he has so far been denied,,,

Wednesday, May 7, 2025.

That’s the deadline to get your REAL ID if you want to fly hassle-free – and they really, really mean it this time. 

The REAL ID is a type of ID that confirms your identity and lawful presence in the US, and it’s something you may need in order to fly after the seventh day of May. And to do other things as well.

 One big problem, of course, is that May is right around the corner and, if you’ve visited the DMV website to make an appointment to get your REAL ID, you will almost always see the following…

On Thursday, April 17, the Guilford County Board of Commissioners will adopt a resolution honoring the life and legacy of Reverend Dr. Nelson Napoleon Johnson, a major figure in Greensboro known for his efforts in the struggle for social justice and civil rights.

The resolution, which will be read by Chairman of the Guilford County Board of Commissioners  Skip Alston, celebrates the life of a man whose faith and determination had a transformational impact on Guilford County and the city of Greensboro….

A medical biotech company that not all that long ago was promising to bring a giant production facility and hundreds of new jobs to Greensboro abandoned those plans and, this week, ProKidney stock – which was selling at $13 a share in August of 2023 – closed on Tuesday, April 15, at under a dollar a share, 71 cents a share to be exact.

The spectacular fall of the stock price is indicative of what happened to the once huge project plan that had Greensboro leaders very excited and had the city…

Though the Guilford County voters have, time after time, voted down a quarter-cent sales tax increase, the Guilford County Board of Commissioners has refused to take no for an answer and they plan to put the measure on the ballot again when countywide elections resume in early 2026. 

And the sales pitch for the sales tax hike has already begun….

Property owners in the county – who are already paying out the nose for their tax bills after the 2022 revaluation – can breathe a sigh of relief about one thing: The Guilford County Board of Commissioners will not increase the property tax rate in the coming 2025-2026 fiscal county budget, which will be adopted in June and go into effect on July 1 of this year.

However, and this is a very big however, while there will be no tax increase in the coming budget, everyone should expect to see another major increase in their tax bills next year when the 2026-2027…

The Guilford County Sheriff’s Office and other area law enforcement agencies are looking for Xavier Scott Williams, who sheriff’s officials say is “linked” to a recent major drug seizure in Greensboro – something this area has seen a lot of in the first part of 2025.

According to the Sheriff’s Office, during a narcotics investigation, a traffic stop led to the execution of a search warrant at 1600 Sir Galahad Road in Greensboro on Wednesday, April 9. That road is just north of Huffine Mill Road near where Huffine Mill joins with Phillips Avenue in Greensboro….

The US – specifically the state of North Carolina – may possess the ultimate secret weapon in the new trade war with China that’s currently raging at unprecedented levels.  While everyone looks to Taiwan as the center of modern computer chip manufacturing, a very little-known fact is that, if it weren’t for the town of Spruce Pine, North Carolina, none of that multi-trillion-dollar industry would be possible…

The world and the Triad area can certainly use some extra prayers right now, so it’s a good thing that Mercy Hill Church in Greensboro – one of the fastest growing churches in the country – is opening a new campus.

The church held a ribbon cutting this week to celebrate the opening of the campus at 1317 Pleasant Ridge Road…

Guilford County commissioners and residents won’t see County Manager Mike Halford’s proposed...

Integrated Power Services  –  a global company in electrical, mechanical, and power management systems – has officially opened a new business development center in Greensboro.

The new office is located at 1050 Revolution Mill Road.

The Greensboro center will act as an extension of Integrated Power Services corporate headquarters in Greenville, South Carolina, and will primarily focus on sales…