Slideshow of White Christmas in Lewisville NC
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Category Archives: Lewisville
White Christmas in Lewisville, NC – 2010
As I threatened this morning here's the first of what promises to be many video posts with my gift from Celeste this year: the Sony Bloggie.
IRS Looking for a Few Lewisvillians – And They’ll Want to Be Found
The IRS has released a list of people they're looking for to send unclaimed refund checks to, and the Triad Business Journal has a handy-dandy database you can use to search to if you're one of them. In Lewisville, NC the people the IRS is looking for are:
R. Fulton
Z. Hartman
D. Kipp
B. Lindsay
B. Ward
D. & P. Weatherman
Lewisville the Scene for a Hallmark Movie
Apparently the Hallmark Channel is filming a movie on location in the Piedmont Triad and one of the locations they're using is Lewisville. Here's the story in the Greensboro News & Record and the Hallmark Channel's press release. The movie will be based on the book The Shunning by Beverly Lewis.
Not sure where they're going to shoot, but there are at least four locations listed on the NC Piedmont Triad Film Commission's website. You can probably guess a few of the locations listed on the website:
If you're in Lewisville and you see a bunch of people running around with a camera you can guess what they're up to.
Lewisville Church News
According to an announcement on his blog Les Puryear, Senior Pastor at Lewisville Baptist, resigned his position as of yesterday. Also according to his post he's currently in Southeast Asia and upon his return he's going to start working in a secular job.
I've never met Pastor Puryear, but I've read his blog for quite a while so it kind of feels like I have. Anyway, best of luck to him and best of luck to the folks at Lewisville Baptist as they search for a new leader of their flock.
Protecting Our High School Kids from the President of the United States of America
Today I received the following message from our kids' high school:
West Forsyth families… this message is to inform you that President Obama will be giving a back-to-school speech on Tuesday, September 14 at 1 p.m. He gave a similar speech last year in which he encouraged students to work hard, stay in school and graduate.
The school system will be showing the President's speech again this year. If you would prefer your student not watch the speech, please send a note with him or her on Tuesday.
Thank you.
I truly, truly, truly don't get this. What have we come to when a back-to-school speech from the President is treated like sex-ed? And I don't say this just because it's this President. I'd say it if we were talking about either President Bush, President Clinton, President Reagan, President Carter, etc.
What's even more troubling is that these are high school kids we're talking about. I can't believe parents feel like their kids aren't mature enough to take what they hear from the President, evaluate it, discuss it and then make their own judgments.
For the record I don't really blame the school administrators; they're obviously reacting to feedback they received last year and are putting a system in place in anticipation of a similar reaction from parents this year. I'm just supremely disappointed that some members of my generation feel like they've raised kids who aren't smart enough to figure out for themselves whether or not a speech from the President is an innocuous message of encouragement, or some sort of "liberal propaganda" disguised as a back to school speech.
Lake at Lissara
A front page article (subscription required) in this week's Triad Business Journal profiles the Lake at Lissara project in western Forsyth County, just outside the Lewisville Town Limits. I'm embarrassed to say I didn't know much of anything about this project even though it's virtually a stone's throw from my house. From the article:
Four Triad developers are teaming up to create a 112-home subdivision on 255 acres in western Forsyth County that will feature a large man-made lake and could reach $50 million in total investment, making it one the largest residential projects in the county since 2008…
By summer, builders and individuals can purchase lots ranging in size from one-fifth of an acre to 30 acres. Wilcox expects the homes to eventually sell for $300,000 to more than $1 million over the next seven years…
To create Lake at Lissara, the developers purchased six parcels of land for around $4 million from six different families, Wilcox said. Godfrey’s firm, Westview Development, previously owned 100 acres of the land slated for the subdivision.
Wilcox estimates total build-out costs, infrastructure and home construction to be $50 million. Once the land is plotted and recorded next month, Coldwell Banker Residential Mortgage will begin selling home lots ranging from $70,000 to about $300,000, Wilcox said.
The goal of the project is create a unique subdivision dotted with waterfront homes, sprawling estates, views of Pilot Mountain and a 64-foot-deep lake where homeowners can swim, sail and fish. The lake itself stretches some 3,000 feet end to end and has an estimated three miles of lake frontage.
From the standpoint of Lewisville I'm not sure this is a great development. There's a pretty decent impact on infrastructure since the quickest access to US-421 is through town, and that section of town already experiences a great deal of traffic volume. On the other hand, since this development is in Forsyth the town won't recognize any tax revenue from it, and considering these are going to be high end properties that would be a decent chunk of change. Maybe the town will get a little indirect bump if the development helps raise the value of surrounding properties, but I don't think it will be enough to make up for the infrastructure hit.
I Guess Drinks Are On Dr. Hutton
MyBridges.net is a local social networking thingamajig that gave away $1,000 to a lucky member to be shared with a charity of his or her choosing. When I saw who the lucky winner was I was kind of gob-smacked: it was Dr. Ron Hutton with whom I served on the Lewisville Zoning Board of Adjustment for several years. I don't think I've seen him since I left the ZBOA, but I might have to look him up to see how he's spending his lucre!
Want to Force Me and Kenny Beck to Shave Our Heads?
Anyone who's been watching WXII this week knows that they're making a serious push to raise food for Second Harvest so that kids won't go hungry this summer. One of their morning show members, Kenny Beck, has been doing goofy stuff like the chicken dance in exchange for financial donations. I asked him via Twitter what it would take to get him to shave his head and he said $1,000. When I indicated I might be serious he said he was too, and we agreed to a low setting on the clippers (not bald, but pretty short).
This dovetails nicely with the food drive that my office is doing for Second Harvest and I thought that if Mr. Beck has the guts to do it, then so should I. So here's the deal:
- If you want to donate to Second Harvest please contact me via email at jon.lowder AT gmail.com and coordinate the donation with me. Once we amass $1,000 I'll arrange to get it to Kenny and we'll get his head shaved.
- Once we pass the $1,000 mark for donations I'll start adding to the tally for TAA's food drive. If you tell me you're donating in hopes of getting me to shave my head then once we reach another $1,000 I'll get my head shaved too (most likely a high and tight like the Marines). I'll post pictures on this blog, my Facebook profile, Twitter, and anywhere else. It won't be pretty, but it's for a good cause. BONUS FEATURE: The largest single donor actually gets to do the hair cutting on me (can't offer that up for Kenny).
So that's it. If you want to see Kenny Beck and me get our heads shaved then email me at jon.lowder AT gmail.com, or call me at (336) 899-0238 to arrange donations. You can also simply mail a check made out to Second Harvest Food Bank of Northwest North Carolina and write "Make Kenny and Jon Shave Their Heads" in the memo field and mail it to me at:
Triad Apartment Association/Attn. Jon Lowder
3407 West Wendover Ave., Suite E
Greensboro, NC 27407
Of course you can mail it directly to the Food Bank, but if you want it to be counted towards our impending baldness you need to send it to me so I can keep track of our progress.
Also, I've also set up my very first Facebook group for the cause. If you visit it you can see one of the worst pictures ever taken of me Photoshop'd to show me bald. Like I said, it's gonna be ugly.
Convert or Burn in Hell?
Generally I don't care how people observe their faith. Want to stand on a street corner and shout about it? Fine by me. Want to clang cymbals or speak in tongues? Fine by me. Want to pronounce your faith to everyone within shouting distance? Annoying, but okay. That said, this post by a minister in Lewisville really bothered me when I read it. It starts:
We need your help. A couple in our church has been sharing Jesus with a woman who is near death in Hospice. Her name is — —-*. She is a Buddhist and if she dies without Christ, she will go to Hell. Will you please take a few moments right now and pray for — to receive Christ?
* I wasn't comfortable using her name in this post.
I do understand that he and the members of his flock mean well, and I also think they sincerely believe that they're endeavoring to save this woman from an eternity in hell, but man I cringe when I think of someone who is in the final stages of life, who is likely in extreme discomfort, being proselytized and told that her own religious belief is going to condemn her to hell.
Personally I think they should pray for her just as they should pray for the well being of anyone, but I don't buy the need for the deathbed proselytizing. I used to get a similar feeling when I had some pretty heated debates with the (very conservative) principal of my Lutheran high school. He just couldn't convince me that God would condemn any good person to hell, no matter their faith. I guess that's one opinion I haven't changed at all over the years.
Befuddled 