Category Archives: Forsyth County

Not Remotely Funny or Cool

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Someone sent an envelope containing baby powder to Rep. Foxx's office in Clemmons and caused quite a scare for one of her staffers.  As someone who lived through the whole anthrax thing in DC (my company was served by the postal facility that had to be decontaminated about 8 years ago, which meant we got some crispy mail for a while and any time we had a "clumpy" envelope everyone got a little nervous) I can tell you that if this was intended as some kind of joke then it's not remotely funny.  For that matter, I don't care how much you dislike a Congress-critter, this is a reprehensible way to try and make your point. 

The Question is “Whose Energy is Being Conserved?”

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Every weekday I get an email from West Forsyth H.S. that contains the school's daily announcements.  In today's announcements I found this:

  1. Dr. Martin has stated that in an effort to conserve energy, school offices will be closed the day before Thanksgiving and all of Christmas Break.

FYI, Dr. Martin is the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools' superintendent.

 

Seriously, am I the only one who finds this lame?  I'm not sure what the normal protocol is for the school system during the holidays, but if they normally keep their offices open the day before Thanksgiving and all of Christmas Break, and if the school system's office employees are not getting paid for those "energy conservation" days, then they ought to just call this what it really is: a furlough.  On the other hand if the office employees are going to be paid for those "energy conservation" days then they ought to call it what it really is: a paid holiday.

 

On a side note, someone at the school is getting entrepreneurial.  Here's the next announcement:

  1. Parents, Teachers, and Students begin your Christmas shopping today from 4:00-7:00 in the 300 building. Pampered Chef, Thirty-one, and Premier Design Jewelry will be here!

About the Winston-Salem Journal

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I've been meaning to write about the local newspaper for the last couple of months, but I'm just now getting to it.  Anyone who's read this blog over the last few years knows that in the past I've been somewhat critical of how the newspaper has approached competing the modern information era.  Well I'd like to take a moment to give them kudos for two recent changes:

  1. Unlike some folks I like their redesign to the smaller format. I find it easier to read and I like the new fonts and layout as well. It's purely a personal preference, but the redesign definitely works for me.
  2. I think combining the hard news into one section and focusing on local news in the front is a good move. National news is easily available from other sources (cable news, national news websites, etc.) and the one competitive advantage that the Journal has is in-depth local news and they need to emphasize that.

I also think the Journal is trying hard with their online efforts.  I'm a fan of some of their blogs, Dan Collins' in particular, and they're even trying some live online chats.  Unfortunately the live chat with Mayor Joines to discuss the Dell situation seemed to have attracted about four people judging by the number of people who submitted questions (I think there were two of us) and I don't sense that many of them get a lot of active engagement. 

What I'm hoping is that the paper will keep plugging away and somehow find gold in the online hills, and do it ASAP, because their print circulation is looking pretty dismal.  Numbers from the Audit Bureau of Circulation show the number of M-F subscribers for the six months that ended 9/30/2009 to be 67,169 and the number of Sunday subscribers to be 82,959.  As those print numbers continue to plummet so will the advertising revenue derived from them, and unless it's replaced with revenue from some other function I don't think the paper will be a viable business for many more years. 

Unfortunately I think the Journal gave up its greatest competitive advantage years ago when it started laying off reporters.  I'm not saying that the folks at the Journal did it light heartedly or without a great deal of consideration, but those very same reporters would be the people that could create the locally focused product unique to the Journal whether in print, online, or written in chalk on the road for that matter.  That content could then be packaged and sold, whether to advertisers or directly to consumers, and would hold what I consider to be the best opportunity for the Journal to survive or even thrive.  Unfortunately that horse is long out of the barn and it's a little late to shut the door.

My friends, the demise of the Journal would be bad for all of us because local newspapers have traditionally been the most effective watchdog of local government and without them we'll have a vacuum to fill.  Sure, we could have "citizen journalists" step in and do some of it, and local TV will do whatever it can in two minute chunks, but local newspapers offer a level of expertise that will be very difficult to replace in the short term and as we've seen recently here in Winston-Salem, even the best intentioned and most respected politicians need some looking after.

Lewisville Native at Center of Washington Controversy

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53 Republican members of the US House of Representatives are calling for President Obama to remove Kevin Jennings from the position of 'safe schools czar'.  From an article in The Hill:

The lawmakers accused Jennings of "pushing a pro-homosexual agenda" and said that Jennings's past writings exhibit a record that makes him unfit for the position.

"We respectfully request that you remove Kevin Jennings, the Assistant Deputy Secretary for the Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools, from your Administration," the Republicans wrote. "It is clear that Mr. Jennings lacks the appropriate qualifications and ethical standards to serve in this capacity."

Apparently Mr. Jennings is a native of Lewisville.  I'm not really up on this issue, but it sounds like they're trying to get rid of him based on problems they have with his background, not anything he's actually done in his position.  We'll have to wait and see how it plays out.

Below's the full text of the letter that the 53 House Republicans sent to the President.  I'll let you draw your own conclusions about their logic:

October 15, 2009

President Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, D.C. 20500

Dear Mr. President,

We respectfully request that you remove Kevin Jennings, the Assistant Deputy Secretary for the Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools, from your Administration. It is clear that Mr. Jennings lacks the appropriate qualifications and ethical standards to serve in this capacity.

As the founder of the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), Mr. Jennings has played an integral role in promoting homosexuality and pushing a pro-homosexual agenda in America’s schools—an agenda that runs counter to the values that many parents desire to instill in their children. As evidence of this, Mr. Jennings wrote the foreword for a book titled Queering Elementary Education: Advancing the Dialogue About Sexualities and Schooling. Throughout his career, Mr. Jennings has made it his mission to establish special protections for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered students to the exclusion of all other students. The totality of Mr. Jennings’ career has been to advocate for public affirmation of homosexuality. There is more to safe and drug free schools than can be accomplished from the narrow view of Mr. Jennings who has, for more than 20 years, almost exclusively focused on promoting the homosexual agenda.

Equally troubling is Mr. Jennings’ self-described history of ignoring the sexual abuse of a child. In his book, One Teacher in Ten, Mr. Jennings recounts a 15-year old student confiding in him that he had a sexual relationship with a much older man. Mr. Jennings’ only response was to ask if the underage boy used a condom. As a mandatory reporter, Mr. Jennings was required by law to report child abuse, including sex crimes. Mr. Jennings cannot serve as the “safe schools” czar when his record demonstrates a willingness to overlook the sexual abuse of a child.

As the “safe schools” czar, Mr. Jennings is also charged with ensuring our schools and students are drug free. It is clear that Mr. Jennings is unfit to serve in this capacity, as well. His own history of unrepentant drug and alcohol abuse indicates that he is of the opinion that getting drunk and high as a young person is acceptable. In his memoir, Mama’s Boy, Preacher’s Son, Mr. Jennings describes his use of illegal drugs, without expressing regret or acknowledging the devastating effects illegal drug use can have on a person’s life.

Everyone that deals with the education of the most vulnerable must be a positive role model.  Our children are not blessed with the wisdom to discern and reject. Children presume the adults who educate them are approved by the larger society and their parents.  Kevin Jennings cannot gain the approval of parents who want their children safe and their schools drug free. You should replace him with someone who has a record of educating children in a safe and moral environment.

Given these very serious issues with Mr. Jennings’ record, we urge you to remove him immediately.

Sincerely,

KING
Alexander
Aderholt
Akin
Austria
Bachmann
Bachus
Bartlett
Barton
Boozman
Broun
Brown, H.
Carter
Chaffetz
Coffman
Cole
Conaway
Davis, Geoff
Fallin
Fleming
Foxx
Franks
Garrett
Gingrey
Gohmert
Hunter
Issa
Jordan
Lamborn
Latta
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McClintock
McHenry
McKeon
McMorris
Mica
Miller, J.
Myrick
Neugebauer
Olson, P.
Pence
Pitts
Posey
Rogers (AL)
Rooney
Ryan, Paul
Shuster
Smith, C
Smith, L.
Wamp
Westmoreland
Jones, Walter

Dell Hell, NC Version

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**Update** If you'd like to see a really good discussion about the Dell situation then head over to Cone's blog and check out the comments.  No shouting and lots of thought behind the comments.  Really good stuff. 

A couple of years back Jeff Jarvis, author of What Would Google Do?, blogged about a very negative experience he had with Dell and he dubbed it Dell Hell.  After yesterday's news that Dell is closing down their desktop plant here in Winston-Salem I'd say we're having our own version of Dell Hell.

Yesterday I wrote that Dell's move couldn't possibly have been a surprise to anyone who's been awake the last 18 months.  Ed Cone quoted me on his blog and since at least one of his commenters suggested that it is a surprise to a lot of people I felt compelled to explain myself in the comments:

The reason I wrote that it shouldn't be a surprise was really an observation that given the overall economic environment of the last 18 months, the fact that the plant was built to produce desktops, that the market has been moving strongly towards laptops and Dell didn't seem to be interested in re-tooling the plant to produce laptops and that Dell has been reducing it's workforce at the plant, then it shouldn't really be seen as very surprising that this has happened. Abrupt? Sure, but these things tend to be.

As for Winston-Salem getting back its incentive money I heard an interview on WXII this morning in which the Dell rep said that the incentives were based on job creation and the Dell had met those conditions, so maybe Dell is planning on fighting the return of those incentive dollars.

In addition to my points in that comment I'd also like to put forward the following thoughts:

  • I remain convinced that subsidies stink. I also remain convinced that if subsidies are a part of the economic development competition between states then state and local officials are pretty much forced to use them. 
  • Hopefully Mayor Joines is right when he says "The city, the county and the community will get reimbursed every dollar we put into the project." What worries me is that Dell might go to court to fight the reimbursements. Even if Dell is wrong they probably have less to lose in taking the issue to court and working for a settlement than they do in ponying up the reimbursements without a fight.
  • Even if we get our money back we still have over 900 people being added to the unemployment rolls by January. That's a heck of a hit for an already overburdened unemployment system, not to mention a potentially chatastrophic impact on the employees.
  • Some leaders have pointed out that the silver lining here is that we have a relatively new manufacturing facility that can now be marketed to another company. I guess that's a good long term view, but short term I wouldn't hold my breath. From the Fed's September 9 Beige Book report for the fifth district, which includes North Carolina:

    "Vacancy rates climbed higher across office, industrial, and retail space in most District markets, while the amount of available office sublease space remained fairly steady since our last report. On the sales side, very little activity was reported in recent weeks."

    Maybe we can re-purpose it as a fabulous new indoor soccer park.

  • I've read some comments on other blogs and news stories that essentially say, "Hindsight is 20/20" or "It's easy to criticize the deal now, but no one could have known this was going to happen at the time the deal was struck." Those folks are right, and at this point I don't think it's appropriate to criticize the folks who put the deal together. I truly believe they were doing what they thought was best for the community and given that incentives are a tool that most state and local governments are using to attract business it's hard to criticize them for trying to compete. (We could argue that the price tag was too high, but that horse is out of the barn).  What we should be focusing on is how we protect ourselves in the future. Winston-Salem is in the unfortunate position of having two deals (the downtown baseball stadium and Dell) go squirrelly on them in very short order and I think it's clear that we have to go into these deals with eyes wide open and assume that the worst can happen.
  • Any which way you slice it, this situation stinks.

Apparently Something Nasty Went Through Our Neighborhood

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My wife just called me to tell me that something like a small tornado just went by our house.  Tops of trees down the street have been twisted off, the siding of one of our neighbors' house has been torn off and a couple of trees are down in the street.  Don't know if it was a tornado or a sever wind burst or what, but it did some damage.  She's taking some pics and I'll post them later.

Related: Last Thursday we had 11 trees removed from the woods by our house.  I'm thinking we were just in time.

How to Get a $20,000 Loan You May Not Have to Pay Back in Winston-Salem and Forsyth County

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I'm not sure if this made the local news and I just missed it, or if it's been flying under the radar, but there's a program in Winston-Salem and Forsyth County to help folks buy foreclosed properties.  Back in January I got an email from Sen. Burr's office about North Carolina receiving over $52 million for the Neighborhood Stabilization Program, but didn't really hear much after that.  Then today the following item from FindForeclosureProperties.com (nice URL huh?) showed up in my Google Reader:

Housing officials in Forsyth County and Winston-Salem, North Carolina have partnered with the Center for Homeownership and financial institutions to help eligible buyers purchase bank foreclosures for sale for less than the properties’ appraised value.

Under the Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP), eligible homebuyers will be able to receive a maximum of $20,000 as deferred forgivable loan. The funds will be used by the eligible buyer as down payment for buying foreclosure houses, provided that the mortgage holders are willing to sell the properties for less than their assessed value…

Furthermore, the home buying assistance initiative is open to first time property buyers and families or individuals who have not purchased or owned a house for three years.

Eligible borrowers will not be required to pay back the loan under the NSP program if they opt to stay and live in the property for not less than 20 years. Additionally, homebuyers should have the properties under sales contract on or before July 18, 2010 in order to become eligible for the program.

Prospective buyers should have household earnings of equal to or not more than Forsyth County’s 120 percent median income which for a four-member family is $71,640. The median income restriction varies with the family size.

I'm not sold on this being a good idea.  Will this prompt people who may not be financially ready to buy a house and then, a year or two down the road, be in over their heads and threatened with foreclosure themselves?  Normally you might say that the banks wouldn't lend to risky buyers, but given what we've learned over the last two years do we really want to trust the banks with their own due diligence?

I appreciate what the program is aiming to do, but like I said I'm not sold on it's merits.

Here's the link to the county's page dedicated to the NSP.

 

WSFCS Getting Off to a Rip-Roaring Start

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Ah, school.  On this day last year I went on a bit of a rant about the school textbook situation.  Unfortunately I didn't have enough personal time to devote to looking into that situation as I wanted to, but maybe at some point in the future I will.  This year I'm not feeling too good about the whole schedule thing, but before I get into it I want to emphasize that I'm really not trying to give the folks at school who are dealing with this mess a hard time.  I can only imagine how complex this whole process is and I'm certain they've been burning the midnight oil trying to get it all figured out. 

Here's the deal: the school system has decided that they want all the schools on the same kind of schedule, so our kids' high school had to change how classes are scheduled.  I'd provide details if I understood them, but let's just say the change has caused some problems.  To wit:

  • Last spring when my oldest did his schedule with his counselor he signed up for an economics class at the Career Center.  A week or two ago he got a call from his counselor saying that with the new scheduling system his econ class was impossible to fit into his schedule so he needed to pick another class.  From the limited options he was able to get…Shakespeare. If you're looking for an association between the two I guess you could say that one's the dismal science and the other's the dismal art.  Even worse, that's just for one semester.  The other semester he's going to be doing something like assisting people in the office just so he can get a credit. 
  • We got a letter from the school system saying that because of the scheduling headaches the kids wouldn't get their schedules until they showed up at the open house tonight.  Given what we've already seen happen to our son's schedule I'm interested to see what happens to our daughter's schedule.  I will NOT be surprised if we have a nasty surprise or two.
  • Speaking of surprises, I just got this email alert from West Forsyth H.S.: "This message is to the parents of students who have classes at West Forsyth and the Career Center.  Students should be aware that the schedules they picked up at the Career Center's Open House last night may not be accurate. We are asking our students to pick up their West Forsyth schedule at tonight's Open House before questioning their assigned classes. Thank you!"  In a way I guess you could say our son losing his one Career Center class was a lucky break.
  • On the other hand the booster club is on top of things.  The same day we got the letter about the schedule snafu we also received a fundraising solicitation for all things athletic at the school.  I have no problem with that, but it's a little ironic that while all the students are wandering around thinking they might end up in underwater basket weaving the jocks can rest assured that the uniforms will be shiny and the grass extra green.

You know what? Maybe this isn't so bad after all. The kids are getting a glimpse at how the real world works. You know, the mid-managers (principals, counselors and teachers) get to implement the super-duper plan handed down by upper management (school administrators) and then deal with the customers (students and parents) screaming at them for screwing everything up.  Another lesson is that no matter how well you plan, something invariably goes wrong and you have to adjust.   Finally, unless you want to pony up for private school or go the home schooling route then you have to pretty much abide by what "the man" (government/school) tells you to do. If that means trading in Keynes for the Bard then that's what you have to do. Welcome to life, kids.

Yesterday Was a Fun Work Day

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I have to say that yesterday was one of the best work days I've ever had.  Why?  Well, because Dale Holder, the chair of TAA's food drive, and I got to drop off about $14,100 dollars at Second Harvest and then we got a tour of their operation (The money that we raised through the food drive was helped greatly by an anonymous $10,000 donation). And here's the reason I was so excited to drop off the donation: given Second Harvest's buying power every $1 donated equals about 12 cans of food, so the money we dropped off will buy about 170,000 cans of food. If you include the food and financial donations that were sent directly to Second Harvest before our grand finale on Tuesday then we were able to get them about 207,000 cans of food.   

SecondHarvestEmptyRoomOur tour was given courtesy of Marcia Cole, Second Harvest's Director of Development and Community Relations, and it drove home the fact that Second Harvest is still in serious need of assistance.  Take a look at the picture I took with my phone and you'll see a rather large room that is still way too empty.

The problem for Second Harvest is that even though donations are up this year, the need for help is up even more.  Add to that the fact that North Carolina's budget problems have delayed the normal state contributions and you have what Clyde Fitzgerald, Second Harvest's Executive Director, calls "a perfect storm."  Want to help?  Here's a couple of ways: