Category Archives: Forsyth County

Winston-Salem Profiled on Wells-Fargo Wachovia Blog

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Here's a link to the profile of Winston-Salem and an overview of Wachovia's history written for the Wells-Fargo Wachovia blog by Wayne Thompson, a resident of Winston-Salem and member of the Wells-Fargo communications team.  It's a nice piece but Mr. Thompson had a couple of small errors:  one was a sin of ommission when he forgot to include Arnold Palmer in the list of Wake Forest sports greats (this was pointed out by a commenter on the blog) and the other was identifying Chris Paul as a native of Winston-Salem (he grew up in Lewisville). 

Vote for Me!

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I love Smitty's Notes, and Smitty ain't too bad either.  I've had the pleasure of meeting with Smitty on a couple of occasions and I consider him a local treasure.  That's why I think it's a HUGE honor to be selected by his readers as one of Winston-Salem's best.  Unfortunately I've never even made it onto the "also mentioned" category in "Best blogs" which really isn't all that surprising, but it is a bummer.  Here's the thing: Smitty's survey is pure in that he doesn't give you multiple choices.  The entire thing is write-in so if no one writes in "jonlowder.com" I'm not gonna get any love.  Now I'm not saying I think that I'm the best blog around (that title rightfully belongs to Esbee'sLife in Forsyth), but I would l-o-v-e to get a mention in Smitty's results as an also-ran (my Mom will tell you I've never been the most ambitious soul) so please, please, please hop on over to the survey and write in JonLowder.com under Best Blog. 

Obviously I'm not averse to pimping my soul for votes, and honestly if I had a million dollars I'd bribe you to vote for me.  For now I'll just have to beg.  Pretty please?

Hey I Know that Kid!

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I was reading today's sports section in the W-S Journal and saw the picture of a young lady I've had the pleasure of coaching for a couple of soccer seasons, which caused me to sit up and blurt out, "Hey, I know that kid!"  It seems that Kristen Henson, a freshman at Reagan, is a rising track star after coming in third in the 3,200 meter race and fourth in the 1,600 meter race at the state 3-A track meet. Here's the paragraph about her from the story:

Kristen Henson of Reagan, who ran a little track in middle school and is also a junior-varsity volleyball and basketball player, flashed a ton of potential as a distance runner by finishing fourth in the 1,600 and third in the 3,200. Henson a time of 5:13.63 in the 1,600 and in a humid and sun-baked 3,200, she gutted out a time of 12:30.73.

I can tell you from personal experience that she's quite a good soccer player but I think it's probably her fourth favorite sport so we may not be seeing her on the fields in the future as she pursues volleyball, basketball and track.  One thing I know she brings to every sport is the heart of a lion and a competitive streak to match.  I think we'll be reading a lot about her in the coming few years.  Congrats Kristen!

Cool Winston-Salem Habitat for Humanity Program Involving High School Groups

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I came across this item from a news site in Loudoun County, Virginia and it piqued my interest since that's right down the road from where I lived much of my life before moving to the Winston-Salem area.  Essentially it's a story about 10 high school football players from Park View High School spending a week at the Winston-Salem Habitat for Humanity assisting on some of the houses.  Here are some excerpts:

The Habitat trip began April 5 when the participating players and chaperons departed from Park View. On the drive to Winston-Salem, players were given the opportunity to visit four colleges (Liberty University, Virginia Tech, Winston-Salem State University and Wake Forest University).

After arriving at the Habitat Forsyth office, players were shown their living quarters for the week — a loft above the Habitat Re-Store that featured two large rooms with military-style cots for sleeping, a kitchen, a table tennis room and a living room with a TV and DVD player. Below the loft were bathrooms with showers and a laundry room. While the living facilities were not luxurious, it held an aura of tradition as every group to have volunteered and stayed in the Habitat loft had left a wall mural representing their school.

The Park View football players went through an orientation where they learned a little about the Habitat process and the people for whom the Habitat houses are built. Many players were surprised to learn that Habitat did not simply provide homes for free, but offered financial responsibility classes for homeowners and actually sold the homes at an extremely low price with a no-interest mortgage…

The second day saw the group work on a different project, the Youth United house. Youth United is a volunteer program that was intriguing to the Park View group. Ten high schools in the Winston-Salem area banded together to raise $55,000 to sponsor the building of a Habitat house. They also worked to provide volunteers to help build the home…

Many of the members of the Habitat trip will be returning to the Winston-Salem area this July when they plan to participate in the Wake Forest University Passing Camp. One of the houses the players worked on may be ready to be handed over to a family by July, and the home dedication ceremony could be when the Patriots are in town.

I really like a few things about this story.  First, it's a great way to get kids involved in Habitat projects.  Second, it's a great way for Habitat to get more hands on deck for their projects and get the word out to the next generation about their programs.  Third, it's a great way to introduce the Piedmont Triad to kids from other regions. Fourth, it's a great way for some high school kids to do good while also working on their own futures with visits to universities.  Finally, it can't hurt the local schools' recruiting that they had those kids visiting their campuses (not to mention Wake's football program).

Biggest surprise of the story to me?  The fact that Habitat houses visiting groups in the loft over the Re-Store.  I had no idea.

East Meets West Forsyth

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I just came across something way cool that involves my kids' high school but I only heard about it because it showed up in my "forsyth county nc" Google news alert.  From the SECCA blog:

The Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art would like to congratulate all of the students who recently participated in its Inside Out Classroom: Switch Video Project. During this international educational program two groups of students–one from the National Art Honor Society at West Forsyth High School in Clemmons, NC; and one from Lincoln High School in Seoul, South Korea–explored and documented their communities through video and other new media tools. The students maintained an ongoing dialog using Skype™, a web-based videoconferencing software, to discuss the differences and similarities of their cultures with their counterparts. The students then “switched” or traded video footage with their counterparts who edited and finalized each other’s video. To see the students’ final videos click on this linkhttp://iiieyekids.blip.tv/posts?view=archive&nsfw=dc.

Now that's what I call effective use of new technology in education.

Go West!

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West Forsyth High School's girls varsity soccer team, currently ranked 14th in North Carolina, was profiled in the Winston-Salem Journal today.  My daughter plays for the JV team and some of her friends are the freshmen varsity starters that are mentioned in the article.  She already realizes that she's going to have to work very hard to crack the varsity lineup next year, but knowing her she won't shrink from the challenge and if she makes it the reward will be that much greater.

Local Shopping: Burn Barrels

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I have lots of yard waste.  In fact after getting our new septic field installed I think I literally have a ton of torn down bushes and small trees that I need to get rid of.  Last weekend I had the kids help me move them to the small wooded area behind our house, but I'm not happy with it because I think I have a rather large brush fire in the making if we get a dry, hot summer.  Thankfully there's a solution at hand.

Last week my buddy Fig told me he'd purchased a burn barrel for $10 from Shouse's near the corner of Yadkinville and Reynolda Roads.  "A burn barrel!" I thought.  I don't have space to do an open burn of my big pile of stuff, but I figured I could burn a little every night in a barrel.  Yesterday when I was out in that neck of the woods I stopped by Shouse's to see if they had any more barrels.  Lucky for me they'd just gotten some barrels that had been used to ship molasses, so they used the biggest can opener I've ever seen to cut the top off and loaded the now open barrel in the back of the minivan for me.  Since the inside of the barrel still had some molasses coating it our old minivan smells pretty darn nice right now, and I assume that the first couple of burns are going to make our yard smell like a molasses cookie factory.

Here's Shouse's location via Google Maps:

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Transparency When No One’s Looking

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Last night we had a public meeting for the Lewisville Planning Board so that we could explain the access management ordinance that we've been working on for the town the last couple of months.  One person from the public showed up and since she represents a coalition of realtors and developers she was essentially paid to be there.  Now I know this stuff can be dull as dirt, but this is where the rubber hits the road.

Let's put it this way.  If you plan on building in Lewisville in the future and you want to know where you can access a road from your property, i.e. build a driveway, and you want to know what kind of driveway you can build, how far away it has to be from your neighbors' driveways and other details then you might want to take a look at what we're doing.  Or if you want to redevelop your land, you might want to know how the new ordinance will affect you.  Whatever, this is the kind of stuff that directly affects people but even when we advertise the meetings, as we did this one, people generally don't show up in droves.

Access management is just one of the things we're working on right now.  Because our Town Council declared a six month moratorium on development until we can get some new ordinances in place we're meeting every week to work on an access management ordinance, a stormater/watershed ordinance and a multi-family housing ordinance.  All of these will affect propert owners in one way or another so I would recommend that people check in on our meetings to see what's going on. 

Now, we're by no means the final word on these ordinances.  We'll eventually send our recommendations to Town Council and they'll make the final decisions, but most citizens don't realize that by the time it gets to the Council a ton of work has already been done and they've missed some golden opportunities to influence the ordinance before it even gets to the powers that be.  Every one of our public meetings has a public comment segment and we really do welcome any feedback we can get.  In fact we've already incorporated changes to our early drafts of the ordinances thanks to the feedback we've gotten from people who attended earlier sessions.

If you're a resident of Lewisville or are a business owner in Lewisville you really should check out what we're doing so you can be part of the process.  Don't wait until everything's 99% done and you have to fight the inertia of a downhill train.  It's not too late.  We continued our deliberations until our next public meeting which is May 13 at 7:30 at the community center next door to the library.  Hopefully we'll see you there.  If you'd like to catch up on what we've been doing you can check out our minutes here.

Reader Mail re. Medical Facilities in Clemmons

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Got this anonymous email today and thought I'd share to see if anyone's heard about this:

On Monday, April 6, an unnamed Urgent Care provider has announced its intentions to the open a new immediate care clinic in Clemmons, NC, located close to the proposed Novant Hospital location, pending state and local approvals. The clinic will feature the same state-of-the-art technology and equipment including electronic medical kiosks, digital radiology and flat screen televisions. Medical care services will range from school and sports physicals, lab work, x-rays, prescriptions, vaccinations and walk-in medical and urgent.

Last Month, Wake Forest University Medical Center’s physicians group announced plans to build another new $2 million to $3 million multispecialty clinic in Clemmons.

My anonymous emailer's address is "saynotonovant" at a free email service provider, and what I gather is that he (or she) thinks that Novant's proposed hospital will lead to more facilities being built in the area.  I'm also supposing that he thinks one of those facilities is being built by WFU which is also building a hospital in nearby Advance.  If all this is true we'll soon have a veritable health care mecca in Clemmons.

Good Points and Historical Perspective About Revaluation

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One of the things I love about this blog is that I often hear from people with different viewpoints and who really get me thinking with their comments or emails sent in response to something I've posted.  Dwight Defee sent me an email about my Revaluation post from March 29 and I liked it so much I asked his permission to post it here.  He graciously said yes so here it is:

This is response to your post of March 29, 2009.
 
Jon.
   I can’t say that I disagree with you about annual appraisals: However, if that happens you and I had better be prepared for higher tax valuations and higher taxes annually.  Even though annual valuations would reflect more accurate property values, who’s going to pay for the additional cost associated with such an accelerated project?  We will, of course, because we are property owners and we are asking for additional services provided by the County Tax Assessor. In North Carolina, Counties are considered a political subdivision of the State.  The State requires Counties to revalue Property every eight years but permits more frequent valuations. 
   Quite a number of years ago ( I was a county employee at the time) the Tax assessor, Harvey Pardue, recommended that the County move from an eight year valuation cycle to a four year valuation cycle.  He was hailed as a hero by the Utilities and Business communities and as a demon by residential property owners. The reason for this, as I understand, is that utility and business property was valued annually and residential property was valued every eight years. Since this was a period of growth for our County, Utilities and Businesses were clearly paying more than their “fair share” of the tax burden.  When Harvey retired, his assistant, Jack Sprinkle, continued the quadrennial valuation schedule but was able to reduce costs with technological advances.  After Jack’s retirement, Pete Roda took the reins as Tax Assessor/Collector and in my opinion has done a good job.  As a former associate of Harvey, Jack, and Pete, I say unequivocally that I have the utmost respect and admiration for the job that they performed for the County.
   Now if you can convince the County Commissioners to provide for annual valuations, I’m sure Pete can handle the job…BUT…you and I had better be ready to help foot the bill for more employees (think salary & benefits), more space and equipment (think office space, desk, computer, etc), Transportation (some of these people have to visit property sites across the County), and other employee expenses that I can’t enumerate at this time.
    Sorry to be so verbose but I needed to respond to a person quick to criticize professionals employed by public entities which are governed by officials elected by the likes of you and I.
 
Dwight Defee
Former Personnel Director
Forsyth County, NC


Here's part of my reply to Dwight that explained a little better (I hope) what I'm thinking when I say that annual revaluations would be better than every four years:

Dwight,
Thanks very much for the email.  I think you make very good points and I have to say that I agree with you. I thought about the extra staff too but I figure that it will be paid for by the extra revenue the county would see.

In retrospect one of my errors is that I came across as thinking that I blame Mr. Roda or the other folks doing the work. I don't. I always assumed that they were working within boindaries set by the
legislature. In other words if they calculate the property values using a formula it is one they've been given and they do the best they can. But that's not how I said it and that's my fault.

I actually think that if the revaluations were done annually it would work out best for everyone, just like I believe that a flat income tax of 10% on everyone without any deductions would be better for everyone and meet the country's needs (but that's a whole other topic).  I also agree with you that we'd have to be prepared to closely watch our commissioners and the tax rates they apply to us.

I want to emphasize what I wrote in that second paragraph: I absolutely agree with Dwight that the assessor is doing his job very well.  As far as I know he doesn't get to decide how or when revaluations are done, he simply makes sure his office carries out their mandate efficiently.  What I'd like to see is that the people who do decide how revaluations are done find a way to do revaluations that are more representative of a properties real current value.  Okay, I'm now off my soapbox.