Stokesdale’s Bill Jones Leaving Town Council And The Town

Stokesdale Town Councilmember Bill Jones, who has served on the Town Council since 2011 and has family roots in the Stokesdale area that pre-date the Civil War, has announced that he’s stepping down from the Town Council and moving out of Stokesdale.

Jones said he’s worried about his replacement on the five-member Town Council – whoever that may be – since he or she may not have Jones’ own financially conservative bent and the small town doesn’t have a lot of money to spend.

Jones said it wasn’t an easy decision.

“My roots are so deep here in Stokesdale,” he said.

Jones said a major factor in his decision to leave is that his wife recently retired and the two decided to downsize.  When they started looking for new houses in Stokesdale, he said, there were simply no homes in the area that met their needs.  He said land values have shot up in and around Stokesdale and developers have built a good deal of $400,000 and above homes, but there were slim pickings in the range he was looking for in the area that would have allowed him to continue as a council member.

Jones was a Guilford County Sheriff’s deputy in the ‘70s and ‘80s, but, in 1986, he was in a high-speed pursuit when the car he was chasing finally came to a stop.  He pulled in behind the car when another trailing officer, unaware that Jones had stopped, roared up on the scene and rear-ended Jones’ car, leaving him with a ruptured disk and other injuries that kept him out of that line of work.  He worked at other pursuits from the late ‘80s to the present but now he’s retired.

Jones said this is a key time for Stokesdale since the town has some major decisions on the horizon.  The town already has a water system but it’s considering entering into an agreement with Oak Ridge, Summerfield and Guilford County to create a new expanded system that would provide more water to more areas at lower rates.  Jones said other key issues for the Town Council under discussion right now are those related to zoning and development and the question of whether more money should be spent on parks.