Author: Scott D. Yost

Last year, the center for golfing operations at Bur-Mil Park was demolished due to its deterioration and dilapidation, but now the Guilford County Parks Department – once the Board of Commissioners approves the move on Thursday, Dec. 19 – will get a much-wished-for new golf operations building at the park at 5834 Bur-Mil Club Road.

The Guilford County Facilities Department estimates the cost for the entire project will come in at about $635,000…

Yvonne Johnson, who passed away on Wednesday, Dec. 4 at the age of 82, was known for her service to the city – as a Greensboro City Council member and as the city’s first black mayor – however, on Thursday, Dec. 19, it will be the Guilford County Board of Commissioners that honors her life. 

At the board’s last meeting of the year, the commissioners will read and adopt a resolution celebrating the life and service of Johnson, who was born in Greensboro in October of 1942….

Many readers are too young to remember it, but once upon a time, like in the 80s and the 90s, office Christmas parties were actually fun.  You could drink to your heart’s content, make some off-color remarks during the Secret Santa game, and even use the event to chat up that saleswoman you’d had your eye on.

Now, however, office Christmas parties are barely really parties: Cost cutting has reduced the treats, everyone is expected to be on their best behavior, and – no matter how much you don’t want to be there – you still have to show up or it’s considered a reason for a demerit….

High Point University, which has been growing by leaps and bounds in the past two decades, has been gaining a worldwide reputation as a very nice and extremely interesting place to go to school. It’s known for its exceptional campus amenities: The campus is designed to resemble a luxury resort, with attractions like waterfalls, outdoor pools and perfectly manicured gardens. Also, students enjoy concierge services, free transportation within a 20-mile radius and even complimentary ice cream from ice cream trucks that roam the campus.

In 2014, London’s Daily Mail newspaper published an article with the headline: “Is this the best university you’ve never heard of? The $700 million Disney-style campus complete with an ice cream truck, a movie theatre… and Skee ball!

On Friday, December 13 at 5:30 p.m., the Guilford County Sheriff’s Office is, as it has in past years, holding its special ‘Celebration of Life’ event. At the ceremony, the Sheriff’s Office will honor the lives lost in traffic-related incidents in 2023.

The annual event honors those lives lost through a tree-lighting ceremony and speeches…

The Greensboro Parks and Recreation Department will hold two holiday events for seniors – ages 50-and-up – on Thursday, Dec. 19.

One called “Oh Gingerbread” will take place from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Craft Recreation Center at 3911 Yanceyville St. in Greensboro. The event will have games, holiday-themed Bingo, a hot chocolate bar, refreshments and other festive holiday activities…

The Guilford County Board of Commissioners has been spending a boatload of money in recent years. That’s not good for taxpayers, who saw their tax bills skyrocket after the 2022 countywide revaluation of property, however, according to a recent review by a government financing association of the county’s annual report and budget, Guilford County is doing a very good job of composing its public-facing finance documents and explaining where all that money comes from and where it all goes.

Guilford County government has just been recognized by the Government Finance Officers Association for the composition, clarity and presentation of the county’s recent annual financial report and its latest budget…

This year, the city’s Mayor’s Committee for Persons with Disabilities will hold its annual “Shopper’s Day” from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 12 at the Four Seasons Town Centre in Greensboro. 

This is the 39th annual Shopper’s Day, which is an event that brings together hundreds of people with disabilities and volunteers – many of whom are local high school students – for a day of holiday cheer, shopping and entertainment….

Farmer and developer David Couch didn’t like the way he was being treated by those in the Town of Summerfield who determine zoning designations, so Couch took his property and went home. 

Well, technically, he didn’t take the land home – instead, with some help from his friends in Raleigh, he got the property moved out of the small town and into unincorporated Guilford County.

For years, Couch has been trying to build a residential and mixed-use development on nearly 1,000 acres of property he owned in Summerfield.  However, after a drawn-out battle that had largely to do with density and whether or not apartments would be allowed as part of the development, Couch convinced state legislators to grant him the removal of the land from the town. ..

Wherever you go in Greensboro these days, there is a lot going on.

Houses going up all around, way too many cars on the streets – streets which are sometimes closed due to a large number of road and water pipe projects constantly taking place. 

There’s also general construction all around and an influx of people coming to Greensboro and Guilford County for all the new job offerings.

That kind of growth – in order not to turn disastrous – requires planning and efficient coordination by city leaders, community leaders, and churches and non-profits along with individual residents living in certain key communities. …

Yvonne Johnson, who has been a leader in Greensboro in many roles for a very long time, passed away at the age of 82 on Wednesday, Dec. 4, and, in the wake of her death, praise for her life of service to the community is being expressed by everyone from local leaders who worked alongside her to the governor of the state.

Johnson had been ill but her sudden ultimate demise came as a surprise to many.  

For nearly a decade and a half, she had been serving as an at-large member of the Greensboro City Council. She was also Greensboro Mayor Pro-Tem…

Some of you just chopped down a tree so you could decorate it and make your home festive for the holidays. So, if you feel bad about that, or, even if you don’t, you might think about planting some trees, which is a good thing to do even if you don’t get a Christmas tree for your holiday celebrations.

Each year, about this time, the Guilford County Soil and Water Conservation District Board sells tree seedlings at great prices to encourage the practice of planting trees. During the annual Tree Seedling Sale, the soil and water group also offers deals on trees and other plants, flowers and related items…

On Wednesday afternoon, Dec. 5, Guilford County Sheriff Danny Rogers held a press conference to remind people during the holiday season of a message that most have heard before: Buying a Walmart gift card and giving the code to the Sheriff’s Department won’t keep you from being arrested.

Scammers asking you to buy gift cards and give them the code off the back is a con as old as the hills; however, Rogers and others in his department haven’t taken kindly to the fact that, in recent years, and especially in recent weeks, those types of scammers are playing themselves…

The Servant Center – an organization that helps homeless veterans – has requested that the Guilford County Board of Commissioners give the organization a half million dollars to expand offerings at a new center in a new building that will allow the center to provide 22 short-term beds for veterans with medical needs.

That $500,000 requested would be used to begin the new service and create 22 “medical respite beds” at the new facility that’s expected to open in mid-2025….

Housing, housing, housing.

There’s simply not enough of it in Greensboro, High Point and Guilford County as a whole, and it’s something many local leaders want to see a lot more of.  When it comes to economic development projects, Guilford County is the dog that caught the car and now area leaders have to worry about keeping the infrastructure up to date in order to handle the new influx of people coming in to fill thousands of those new jobs…

High Point University is, for the 53rd time in a row, inviting everyone in the community to join...

It was the band The Who that sang, “Meet the new boss, same as the old boss,” and those words rang true at the very nice ceremonial Monday morning meeting that took place on Monday, Dec. 2 – a meeting where commissioners were sworn in, the chair and vice chair of the board were selected, and where the Board of Commissioners took other procedural votes to get set for the coming year.

The Monday morning meetings are always the commissioners’ most peaceful get-togethers, with the room decorated, the commissioners wearing somewhat festive attire and with hot drinks and breakfast foods served out in the foyer after the brief ceremony. ..

The number and quality of companies that have chosen to locate in Guilford County in recent years has been something of an embarrassment of riches. But, now, local governments, economic development officials and private property owners are doing what they can to provide more housing to handle the influx of new workers…

Some people who grew up in North Carolina are old enough to remember when the state, like other states, had Election Day, rather than “Election Season.” However, in this century, it’s become clear that elections can get drawn out for very long periods of time and now that season in North Carolina runs from the start of Early Voting until the county election boards across the state certify their vote counts, and, finally, the State Board of Elections puts the stamp of approval on the outcome…

Downtown Greensboro Inc. has released the details of the 2024 Festival of Lights Celebration– and there is a lot going on this year for those who love the holiday season.

Downtown Greensboro, also known as DGI, is inviting everyone out to “ring in the holiday season at the city’s traditional Festival of Lights, which will have some added features this year.

The action gets started on Friday, Dec. 6, the night that will kick off the “Downtown in December” festivities planned for the last month of the year that are being presented by Allegacy Federal Credit Union….

In a significant move meant to support self-represented litigants, the Guilford County Board of Commissioners, at a recent work session, approved a budget amendment and capital project outlay that will establish two “Legal Support Centers” in Guilford County.

If you want a nice piece of real estate in a very, very happening part of town, well, the old Guilford County Animal Shelter looks like it’s about to go on the chopping block. 

At a Thursday, Nov. 21 work session of the Guilford County Board of Commissioners, County Manager Mike Halford brought the subject up before the board discussed some serious staffing problems at the current new shelter on Guilford College Road…

Almost always, the Guilford County commissioners hold their regular meetings at 5:30 p.m. on the first and third Thursday of each month, however, once every two years, in election years, they hold a special morning meeting – called an “organizational” meeting – where newly elected Guilford County officials are sworn in and the commissioners, at that same meeting, select the person who will lead the board for the next 12 months…

Thanksgiving is just about here, and Piedmont Triad International Airport is ramping up its operations to handle one of its busiest travel weeks of the year. The airport is usually a breeze to fly in and out of; however, during heavy travel times, even those flying in and out of the fairly low-key airport may need to make some changes…

In recent years, Guilford County government has been doing a lot of major work in downtown Greensboro – as have private companies and the City of Greensboro – such as the county’s renovation of a giant underground parking lot beneath the governmental plaza and the construction of a new Sheriff’s Department headquarters, and all that displacement has already made finding a convenient parking space downtown a major challenge….

One of Greensboro’s biggest economic development successes in recent years is now a big bust.

ProKidney is a publicly traded company and soon after the company agreed to locate a giant biomedical operation in Greensboro in 2023, the stock began falling like a rock from levels near $13 a share until it was, at some times, flirting with becoming a penny stock, which is a stock that falls to under a dollar a share….

Several years ago, Guilford County government purchased the former BB&T building in downtown Greensboro, which now houses, among other government services, the Register of Deeds Office and a health gym used by county employees.

 However, on Thursday, Nov.21, at the Board of Commissioners’ last meeting, the commissioners voted to start a bank – loaning out taxpayer money to small start-up businesses and hoping that those businesses will pay the money back.

If not, the county’s taxpayers are out of luck….

This week, the Guilford County Sheriff’s Office sent out one of the briefest press releases that’s ever come from that office. Here it is in its entirety: “Sheriff Danny H. Rogers reports that on Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2024, at approximately 5 p.m., an employee of the Guilford County Sheriff’s Office was involved in a vehicle collision with a pedestrian on US Highway 29, just north of Cone Boulevard. The Greensboro Police Department is leading the investigation into this incident. There is no further information to share.”…

The Guilford County Board of Commissioners has been hearing a whole lot from animal lovers in the county lately regarding major challenges at the Guilford County animal shelter, and, at an afternoon work session on Thursday, Nov. 21, the board heard, for the first time in a long time, from Guilford County Animal Services Director Jorge Ortega, who spoke of some of the challenges – as well as the successes – at the animal shelter.

At a meeting of the Guilford County Animal Services Advisory Board one week earlier – on Thursday, Nov. 14 – board members, shelter staff and volunteers spoke of the immense challenges of handling the large number of animals at the shelter without sufficient funds or staff…

A while back, the Rhino Times suggested in print that it was inadvisable for Donald Trump to...

The staff and volunteers at the Guilford County Animal Shelter are doing everything they can to help the animals and avoid euthanizing the cats and dogs held there – but they are human, not superhuman, and, right now, the shelter is facing a perfect storm of challenges that is overwhelming staff and volunteers alike. …

The Dog’s Day Out program at the Guilford County Animal Shelter, which is being suspended due to a lack of sufficient staffing and funding, was a wonderful program that helped give the dogs at the shelter a day of peace and sanity. It got the animals out of their cages for a day and enabled them to receive a lot of love and attention that it’s impossible for overworked shelter employees to provide in a loud and overcrowded facility.

The program allows the dogs to be taken out of that hectic environment, where the animals are overwhelmed by incessant barking, confined in tight spaces and receive very little human attention…

The North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources State Historic Preservation Office has issued an eligibility certification for One Center Plaza in High Point – better known in these parts as “Showplace West.”

According to a Tuesday, Nov. 19 announcement by Downtown High Point, “This recognition marks a significant step toward leveraging the North Carolina Historic Mill Rehabilitation Tax Credit for the adaptive reuse of this historic building.”…

On a cold and rainy Thursday, Nov. 14 evening, the Guilford County Animal Services Advisory Board...

In 2018, the North Carolina General Assembly voted to confirm a straight border between Guilford County and Alamance County – after a horrendous decades-long dispute between the two counties – and, on Thursday, Nov. 21, the Guilford County Board of Commissioners is ready to settle a similar – though much less contentious – dispute with Forsyth County….

The City of Greensboro’s Office of Community Safety together with the local chapter of Black Men United are inviting area residents and their families to come out to the “Community Giveaway and Resource Event” next weekend – where people will find food, entertainment, and items that are all priced at zero dollars and zero cents.

It will also be an event where attendees can learn how to connect with government services or community organizations that may be able to fill certain needs….

Guilford County Sheriff Danny Rogers is a snazzy dresser. 

When he shows up at a public event, you never know what to expect – he could, for instance, be sporting a purple cowboy hat, a blue paisley bowtie, a silk blue vest and bright white shoes. 

Just one of his many looks.

Anyway, the high sheriff of Guilford County really enjoys making a fashion statement. 

However, the uniforms for the officers and deputies who work for Rogers have to be a little more utilitarian and a little less flashy.  Now, it appears it’s time for those officers to get some new uniforms….

It’s beginning to look a lot like – well, you know.

The day after Halloween, people began hearing Christmas songs all over the place and they will last until New Year’s Eve as it does each year.

Another highly evident sign that the season is upon us is this: The Guilford Merchants Association’s very popular selfie sleigh will return for the fourth year to High Point Public Library on Tuesday, Nov. 19 at 5:30 p.m….

When it’s finally finished, it should be a sight to behold and a beehive of activity.  That will come later, but the first physical step in the process – the breaking of the ground – will take place later this month.

The City of Greensboro is inviting everyone in the community to come out and celebrate the Windsor Chavis Nocho Community Complex at the groundbreaking from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 23 at the Windsor Recreation Center at 1601 E. Gate City Blvd….

Chairman of the Guilford County Board of Commissioners Skip Alston had a goal of ending homelessness in Guilford County before it turned cold in 2023 and that obviously didn’t happen.  Then the goal changed to doing it before it turned cold in 2024 –and it’s already getting cold and that admittedly lofty goal obviously isn’t going to get met this year either.

In fact, the situation may be getting worse since the resource center for the homeless in downtown Greensboro has ended its nighttime hours and there are as many homeless in the city as ever who aren’t sure where they will stay on cold winter nights…

Greensboro’s Downtown Greenway has a brand new website with all kinds of features and the site looks really, really good. It uses very high-quality photos, vibrant graphics and interactive features that provide a wealth of information about the Greenway and the events taking place there.

Downtown Greenway Project Manager Dabney Sanders said she’s thrilled with the finished product.

“I am so pleased to share that after many, many years of hanging on to our old website – we have finally launched a new one, www.downtowngreenway.org,” she wrote in an email on Wednesday, Nov. 14…

On Tuesday, Nov. 12, many Greensboro residents were very alarmed to find in their mail a letter from the city that created the impression the water coming into their homes was contaminated.

The ominous-sounding letter, which came under the letterhead of the City of Greensboro Water Resources Department, shows the homeowner’s address in bold letters and, in all caps across the top states “YOUR SERVICE LINE IS OF UNKNOWN SERVICE LINE MATERIAL.”…

Piedmont Triad International Airport is adding a little something special over the next couple of months for people flying in and out of the central North Carolina airport that often plays second fiddle to airports in Charlotte and Raleigh – which often offer more flight choices and lower fares.

That competition drives PTI to make some special efforts every now and then, and this holiday season it’s offering musical entertainment and other benefits for flyers….

On Tuesday, Nov. 12, soon-to-be President Donald Trump, who’s been announcing this week his nominees for various positions in his new administration, said he has chosen Fox News host Pete Hegseth to serve as secretary of defense for the United States.

Before taking a job as a Fox News host a decade ago, Hegseth served in the Army National Guard – with tours of duty in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay.

He later joined Fox News, where, for the last decade, he has been best known for co-hosting “Fox & Friends Weekend” – the network’s weekend morning show….

The City of Greensboro’s leaf police are not out to get you, but instead, to teach you.

According to Greensboro officials, the city’s “first priority is to educate residents on the proper way to collect and prepare the leaves for pickup. This approach has been successful, and residents have promptly complied with the new rules. As a result, no fines have been issued.”

That Sunday, Nov. 10 press release from the city added that, on the other hand, intentionally placing leaves on or beyond the curb line in front of your property may indeed lead to fines being issued….

You’ll probably want to think twice about driving drunk or impaired in Guilford County over the holidays since there’s a special task force set up in the county just to catch you and get you off the road. 

A DWI arrest may also mean that your car is seized and sold – with the proceeds going to school funding.

The objective of the Governor’s Highway Safety DWI Task Force Grant that’s being given to Guilford County is “to provide programs which address traffic-related issues such as unrestrained drivers and passengers, especially children, speeding, motorists driving while impaired, and community education on these issues.”…

Some racist comments, allegedly made by Mecklenburg County Sheriff Garry McFadden, have caused a...

Action Greensboro – a part of the Greensboro Chamber of Commerce that acts as a “catalyst for public-private partnerships” meant to help the city grow – has been awarded the top honor for “Best Communications Strategy in Economic Development” at the very high-profile 2024 City Nation Place Awards…