The Guilford County Board of Commissioners usually holds one two-day retreat each year, however, 2025 will be special in that regard because the board has decided that it will hold not one, but two retreats.
The first two-day retreat will be held at North Carolina A&T State University on Thursday, Jan. 23 and Friday, Jan. 24.
The second is currently planned for Bur-Mil Events Center on Thursday, March 20 and Friday, March 21.
Unlike regular meetings and work sessions – which usually only last a few hours and are often limited to the most immediate issues at hand – commissioner retreats are the time each year that the board, the county manager, now Mike Halford, county directors and other top staff get to do a deep dive into major county projects, address less-pressing issues and formulate long-term plans.
The retreats also give county directors a chance to provide the board with in-depth reports on the state of Guilford County government.
The only other time this century that the board has held two retreats in one year was nearly two decades ago when the late Carolyn Coleman was chairman of the board. Coleman held a retreat early in the year and then another in the middle of the year.
One reason the board needs double the retreat time is because there’s a whole lot going on with Guilford County government. Guilford County Clerk to the Board Robin Keller said the addition of millions of dollars of American Rescue Plan Act money – and all the projects undertaken as a result of that pandemic relief bill – has added to the number of items that need to be addressed this year in a retreat setting.
Keller said the first retreat will be more of a traditional retreat where the county hears from departments and does some long-term planning while the agenda for the second retreat in March will likely focus more on Rescue Plan projects.
Guilford County received over $100 million in pandemic relief money, and much of that was given out to the cities and towns in the county, which are now using the funds for projects like water and sewer infrastructure, parks improvements and new sidewalks.
According to county staff, some representatives of towns and cities may come and provide reports at the second retreat.
Guilford County has plenty of internal issues to deal with as well. It has major projects going on like the construction of a new Sheriff’s Office administrative building and a massive renovation of the government plaza in downtown Greensboro. The board is also allocating millions of dollars in new school construction this year.
The commissioners and county staff usually put a good deal of thought into where they hold the annual retreat and in 2024 it was held in High Point at Congdon Yards, a 1920’s-era factory building that in recent years has become a central cog in the revitalization effort of downtown High Point.
Two years ago, Chairman of the Board of Commissioners Skip Alston said that he wanted to hold a retreat at one of the local colleges or universities but there were some scheduling issues at that time. Now, in 2025, the board will be hosted by A&T University and then will meet in March at Bur-Mil, which has been a frequently used retreat site since it underwent a renovation several years ago.
In the past, commissioners have used the event to show off new restaurants, wedding venues and growing colleges like High Point University – and they even held one retreat at a very nice venue in Chapel Hill when former commissioner Bruce Davis was chairman of the board. That’s the only time the retreat has been held outside of Guilford County.
The meetings usually get started around 9 a.m. each day after everyone has arrived and had some coffee and breakfast treats.
In 2021, the commissioners held the retreat at an extremely nice venue: A large open meeting room with glass windows on all sides overlooking the pool and golf course at Forest Oaks Country Club. During that retreat, some commissioners enjoyed the indoor virtual reality golf game that let them play on famous courses from around the world.
The best meals the commissioners and county staff ever got during a retreat was when they held it years ago at High Point University. The school, which likes to do everything in a big way, provided excellent lunches and also had a table that was constantly filled with treats like brownies and M&M’s.
Another yearly effort of farting into the wind by this group. How to increase and waste your tax dollars.
that’s pretty cynical.
Ok let’s replace farting in the wind with “tooting” in the wind. Is that better
I know the origin of the phrase “old fart”.
While they are at these retreats, they need to think long and hard about the schools in this county. I was shocked, saddened and disappointed to hear from students at Page High School about the current conditions there. My daughter is a student there as well, and almost everything that was said I was not aware of. The auditorium there has been condemned, I don’t know when this happened but we were not informed. I knew about heating and AC issues, I wasn’t aware that some bathrooms were missing stall doors and dividers. I’m assuming that’s the men’s bathrooms since it was a male student talking, but some of the ladies bathroom stalls had broken locks, but they’ve been fixed. And to hear that a rebuild is now not in the budget for Page when it very clearly needs one quite honestly makes me mad. That school isn’t big enough to house that many students especially when their cafeteria doesn’t even hold a fraction of the students there for one lunch period. It’s too cold to eat outside right now, and setting up tables in G-wing isn’t enough space to properly seat all the students that the cafeteria cannot hold. The new schools that have been built are great, but what state of disrepair will they be in in 20-30 years if this is the best that can be done?
The more money Government Schools get, the less they address fundamental needs.
Have you noticed your neighbor “educator” drives fancy cars these days?
Now Jv, it isn’t fair that some Commissars should get THEIR choice for Junke…I mean retreats and the others don’t thier choice. This is only the only fair way everybody gets their taxpayer paid vacation under the concealment of (cough cough) “working for the people”.
Here’s an idea…get coffee, snacks, maybe even a catered lunch brought into the existing chamber and they might even GET SOME WORK DONE instead of spa days and shopping trips ON OUR DIME.
Its worked for the PG Town Council each year and was minimum expense for our taxpayers. Just sayin’
The commissioners do get quit a bit of work in during retreats. You can watch them streaming online. Now, when Guilford County taxpayers paid, for instance, for the commissioners to fly to a week-long national conference in Hawaii and stay at really nice hotels, something like that might more fairly be seen as a junket.
that’s why it’s called pleasant garden . . . the gardeners are pleasant & capable & effective.
They’ve got the money why not?
They should be going to The Grove Park Inn convention center, I mean really spend some money .
But see that is what they will do next year, they will say instead of two retreats, we are going to consolidate to one at the Grove Park Inn.
they are in full retreat !
Now, if only they would retreat from their SPENDTHRIFT ways we’d all be happy.